Peace through power
by Exoxia
Summary: 2 years after the end of the 3rd tiberium war, the scrin have returned to finish the job. Summoned at the end of his last stand by Louise and Tiffa at the same time, Halkeginia will never be the same. Presenting Hiraga Saito, hero of GDI and... Hiraga Saito, hero of NOD.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 1: The end is the beginning

Hiraga Saito knew he was a dead man. Standing amidst the ruins of his command centre, he watched as his remaining forces prepared to make a last stand against the unending tide. All around them, the battered city of Tokyo burned.

"Commander! We've lost contact with armour divisions 3 and 5. We won't be able to hold much longer. We need to fall back now!"

Saito sighed as he ran a hand through his sweat matted hair. "And where would we fall back to lieutenant? To our east lies the tiberium wastelands, to our west a minefield that has no safe path. Our south? Civilian evacuation efforts haven't finished yet. And of course, we have those bastards in the north. All we can do now is hold as long as we can. Send a message to colonel Montgomery, the 101st is to support the 7th armoured and keep the absolute defence line from being breached."

"I… I… Yes sir!"

The lieutenant snapped off a crisp salute before running off to carry out Saito's orders. The far-east regional commander took a deep breath before exhaling. In his mind he prayed for forgiveness for sending even more of his troops into the meat grinder.

A bitter smile graced his face as he knew no salvation was coming. His army was the last surviving one in the entire Asian region and even that status wouldn't last much longer. Humanity's remaining forces not dedicated to the defence of key installations and evacuation efforts had pulled back to Kane's tower.

Full control of its systems had finally been achieved after two years of research following the end of the third tiberium war. A portal to the stars, that's what it was. A new home planet lay on the other side, free from the scourge of tiberium, free from the invaders, free from war. And now it was humanity's last hope.

Returning his attention to the tactical feed displayed on the holo table before him, Saito watched as his lines began to buckle for the last time against a combined assault of mammoth tanks and avatar battle walkers under the control of Scrin's masterminds.

Thousands of the smaller infantry units swarmed around the behemoths to wipe out the remaining infantry garrison and clear a straight path to Saito's HQ. Absentmindedly, he issued a command to the 4th motorised infantry to make a kamikaze charge against them, supported by the pitiful remains of his air force.

They'd suffer 100% fatalities but they'd accomplish their objectives, all Saito needed was for them to be slowed until his main objective could be complete.

Leaving the command tent, he turned his head to the north, even with the skyline shrouded in smoke and orange light from the flames, there was no missing those silhouettes. Three truly massive insectoid shadows were slowly yet certainly approaching.

Green discs of death spewed forth from what passed for their mouths, eliciting screams and explosions with every volley. The Eradicator Hexapods were just too strong. Saito had thrown everything he had at them and still came up short. If he still had air superiority maybe he could have done something but between the rift generator strike and planetary assault carrier siege, his air force had been cut down to a few obsolete craft from the 2nd tiberium war.

A part of him still felt a small sense of satisfaction in seeing that he made the invaders pay for the victory in blood. Five hexapod kills with the hopelessly understrength force he had was a miraculous play as it were.

"Haaa… all that's left is for those bugs to breach the base and the cyclops system will do the rest."

Saito turned off his comms and shut out the desperate pleas for reinforcements coming from his men, unable to stomach it anymore. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a toy MCV and began fiddling with it.

"Damnit, if only we had 2… no, just 1 more day would have been enough." Letting out a self-deprecating laugh, he held the toy up to eye level. "If I could have just deployed this damnit. Fucking transport shot down, fucking late retrieval."

A new invention from the egg heads back at high command, a truly mobile construction vehicle, now equipped with new shrinking technology to allow for easy transport in the pockets of any commander. And, it was equipped with the new prototype cloning tech, an army not limited by the number of humans they had but the amount of resources available. A general's wet dream in essence… and now nothing more than a dream.

It would have been the cornerstone of their defence of Japan but by the time Saito got his hands on it, the battle had already been lost for them.

"So this is the end then." Saito gave a last smile as his base defences crumbled under the combined firepower of the scrin armada.

A distortion in the air before him heralded the arrival of a scrin mastermind. Its voice boomed in the confines of Saito's mind as it tried to exert control over him.

 **[You have fought well commander. But it's over. Give in, the empire has use for commanders like you. Submit.]**

"Pah!" Saito spat at the mastermind as he resisted the takeover. "I will never bow to tyrants like you. Humanity will never bow and I will fight to the end!"

 **[Fool. What do you hope to accomplish by your resistance? Your army is destroyed. You are just one man.]**

"Hahahahahh! Never underestimate the amount of damage one determined man is capable of. I'll see you in hell you assholes!"

Whipping out a detonator, Saito jammed the red button down with as much force as he could before letting out one last bout of laughter.

Buried beneath his base was a network of six fusion plants that under normal circumstances would have provided power to both the garrison and the city proper. And now, they had been converted into the most powerful nuke the world had ever seen.

On cue, the entire base and its surroundings vanished in a blast of brilliant white light, nuclear fire scorching away every trace of both the human defenders and the scrin invaders in the blink of an eye. Crucially, the three hexapods that had laid waste to Saito's forces were among them. With most of the invasion force at ground zero, enough of them had been exterminated such that the remainder would not be enough to threaten the evacuation efforts.

Eventually, Kane's tower would be activated and Humanity would find a new home among the stars, safe from tiberium and the scrin. Given enough time, humanity would become a space faring civilisation on their own under the leadership of the United Earth Government and later the Federation. But that's a story for another time.

The sacrifices made by the many who fought against the scrin would be remembered by those who lived on. Countless names adorned the memorials, among them included one Hiraga Saito. The legendary commander who achieved innumerable victories in life and died spitting in the face of the impossible one last time.

Scholars would pour over his battle records and remain divided for centuries to come on whether his tactics were masterful strokes of genius or the actions of a desperate man refusing to lose. And all of them would question what thoughts were running through the man's mind at the end of his final mission.

-line break

Pain wracked his form as Saito rose to his feet. Thick black smoke covered everything and the commander couldn't see his hands in front of his own face.

"Ow ow ow ow… damnit, if I'm dead why the hell does it hurt so much? Oh… right… I'm in hell."

The wind picked up and blew away the smoke and Saito found himself staring but not believing. A short pink haired girl stood before him ranting in a language he did not understand and a balding man in robes stood nearby trying to placate her. There were others standing further back dressed in the same attire as the pink one.

They looked to be students of some sort and they were laughing at the pink one for some reason.

" _Professor, there must be some kind of mistake! This… this commoner cannot be my familiar! Please let me try again!"_

" _Now Louise, I can't let you do that. This is a time-honoured tradition and you can't just summon a new familiar because you don't like the one you got."_

" _But professor!"_

" _Ahahahaha Louise the zero indeed! Who summons a commoner as a familiar? Ahahahaha!"_

" _Grrrr, shut up Zerbst! I'll show you who's a zero!"_

" _Enough! Quit bickering like children! Now Louise, I know that summoning a human is… unconventional but there's nothing we can do. Please seal the contract, we can look into this more later."_

"Uh, excuse me. Where is this? What happened to the scrin? Did we win? Is… is this hell?" Saito tried asking in English since he assumed they might be more familiar with it than his native Japanese to no luck. For some reason, he just got more laughter, probably at some joke he wasn't privy to.

" _I stand corrected, this isn't just being a zero, this is in the negatives now. You didn't just summon a commoner, you summoned one who can't even speak right! Ahahahah! Oh, you're killing me Louise."_

" _Grrr… stupid familiar. You should be thankful; most commoners go their whole lives without receiving such an honour from a noble."_

Before Saito could react, the pink one had grabbed his hand and dragged him down before planting a kiss on his lips. A sharp burning sensation ran through his left hand and he grit his teeth to keep from screaming out.

As suddenly as it came, the pain left and he felt… strange to say the least. His mind felt clearer now, the guilt of sending his men to their deaths receding to a more manageable level. That and he could understand their words now.

"What the heck was that!?"

"Be silent stupid familiar! I will not have you use such vulgar language in front of the nobility."

"Familiar what? Nobility?"

"Hmmph!" The pink one pushed out her non-existent chest and tried smiling arrogantly at Saito, the effect was drastically diminished by the fact that he towered over her though.

"You have the honour of being the familiar of Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Be proud of that commoner."

Saito blinked once and rubbed his eyes before speaking. "Yes… that name means nothing to me though. I don't know who you are or where this place even is and I don't have time for your games. Where is the scrin? Did we win?"

"Time for my games… Wha!? How dare you stupid familiar. I am the daughter of a duke and you will show me the respect I deserve! And what is this stupid scrin anyway."

"Daughter of a duke? I wasn't aware we still had nobility. No matter, I don't care whose daughter you are even if your old man is the emperor himself. You will get my respect when you earn it. And just how sheltered are you to not know of the scrin? You know, the invaders who tried to exterminate us twice!?"

"You… I… Wha!?" Louise was stunned into silence by Saito's response and unable to come up with a retort. The laughter of her compatriots over her failure to control her familiar continued to barrage the pitiful remains of her self-esteem and she fought back the tears. She would not give them the satisfaction of knowing how much they had hurt her. "Just who do you think you are!?"

"Me? Ah yes of course, introductions." Saito snapped to attention and saluted before replying. "Brigadier General Hiraga Saito, regional commander of the far east. ZOCOM."

-line break

Somewhere in the forest of Albion, a half-elf prodded the fallen man she'd summoned through the familiar spell big sis Matilda had taught her. The children were already asleep after growing tired of poking at the unresponsive man who'd been staring at space ever since his summoning hours ago.

Trying to move him into the orphanage had been a failure, he was a lot heavier than he looked and their combined efforts had failed to move him even an inch.

"Ano… can you understand me? You need to get inside, a storm is coming. It… it's not healthy to remain outside… hello?"

The familiar runes on his chest glowed slightly as Tiffania nudged him before fading and Saito blinked.

Suppressing the urge to groan as his muscles screamed in protest against his actions, he rose to his feet and regarded his summoner. "Where is this? What happened to the scrin?"

"Ano… you're on Albion at the moment. This is the Westwood village… it's a home for orphans. I don't know what the scrin is though."

"How did I get here?"

"Eto… I summoned you through the summon servant spell. Ummm, it was supposed to summon an animal of some sort to serve as my protector and friend… but I summoned you instead. I'm… I'm sorry?"

Saito shook his head as Tiffa's ears started to droop. "No, don't apologise, I do believe you saved my life and for that I am grateful. I don't quite understand what a familiar is but if you will have me, I will serve."

"Really! I… I mean, my name's Tiffania Westwood, friends call me Tiffa, it's nice to meet you." Tiffa gave a bright smile that would have blinded many a lesser man.

"I see. I am Inquisitor Hiraga Saito, commander of the Marked of Kane in the far east. Connection to LEGION has been severed, I shall defer to your judgement on how best to proceed. Through me, the Marked will serve."

Saito executed a perfect bow before speaking again.

"One vision. One purpose. Peace. Through. Power."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 2: A new world

"Change yourself, you're old enough to do so."

"Wha! Stupid familiar, I am your master! You will do as you're told."

"Hmm yes, you kidnapped me and pretty much enslaved me with your spell. This… bond will not break unless one of us dies. Any particular reason why I shouldn't just off you?"

A stab of fear ran through Louise as her new familiar casually threw out the idea of ending her existence as though she were nothing more than a nuisance, before she could think on it too long, Saito continued speaking.

"And I did check with the whatshisname, professor Coleslaw? Eh, anyhow, slavery is illegal around these parts and punishable by death. I don't even have to off you myself, just report you to the authorities and they'll do it for me."

Louise's stomach dropped even further. She had not considered that little fact. "B…bu…bu…"

"Oh relax, I won't do either of that. It was just a little joke"

"Y-You won't!?" A small nugget of hope blossomed in her chest before the relief changed to anger. "A-and what kind of a joke was that!? It wasn't funny!"

"Eh, I've been told my sense of humour needs work. In any case I won't kill you, I've… done more than enough in the past. You are the one with a mistaken idea about what a familiar is. Like I said, I checked with professor coldman, a familiar is there to protect and support the mage they're contracted to, and I intend to do just that."

"B-but you just refused my order?"

"Indeed, providence has decreed that I am to be your partner. I will keep you safe and help you grow to the best of my ability, but I am not your servant. I will not stunt your growth by coddling you. And don't start with the nobility card. All are made equal before death pinkie, as your familiar I will see you grow independent and please do get rid of your I'm better than you shtick, it will get you killed one day."

"I-I don't understand."

"You will eventually, I am here to teach you after all. For now, you need to sleep, it is late and I do believe you have lessons tomorrow morning. I will be familiarising myself with the school in the meantime, have a good night."

Leaving the stunned noble behind, Saito quietly walked out the door and shut it behind him.

'Magic… there's god damned magic here. The spooks back home would have a field day with this. Shame this world is so… backwards. Nobility ruling over peasantry? How archaic, so much faith in a system doomed to failure.'

A dark look crossed the general's face as he walked along the silent corridor. 'Then again, its not like the democracy and power to the people thing worked out so well back home either. Otherwise, NOD would never have come to power. Guess I don't have the high ground to criticise anyone huh.'

Idly fingering the shrunken MCV still in his pocket, Saito pondered his future course of actions. Trapped in an unknown world filled with unknown hostiles with unknown factions. For the moment his immediate future was pretty certain, stick with pinkie and ensure she grows out of her little 'I am the centre of the universe' mentality, and keep her from being assassinated by her enemies.

After that, after that he'd play it by ear. Saito didn't have the full picture just yet but he didn't like what he had at the moment. Nobility with magic, ostensibly the protectors of the common folk but as with all things, massive corruption rampant in the system.

If this world was anything like his old one, bringing justice to the land was an exercise in futility. The guilty remained in power for any combination of three reasons. One, they were good at hiding the evidence from both their enemies and the more upright nobles. Two, they either had the connections or the money to ward off any investigations into them long enough for evidence and witnesses to disappear. Three, those with the power to do anything about the abuses are either too busy with more pressing concerns or simply see the abuse as an inevitable part of life and nothing to worry about. Often enough, all three reasons were present.

Saito heaved a sigh as he passed a blonde boy flirting with a girl, both nobles if their uniform was anything to go by. He stared into the sky as the two moons hung overhead, more evidence he was either on another planet or another dimension entirely.

His thoughts centred around the fact that one of his greatest failures was the result of his own guilt of reason three. Unbidden, the memories surfaced and he found himself reliving the past again.

-line break

"I'm major Hiraga Saito, commander of this garrison. I heard you were looking for me, so here I am."

Before the young commander was a middle-aged man arrested by the military police after he'd tried breaking into the base when his request to meet Saito had been turned down.

"Ah! Thank you for seeing me sir. Please you have to help us!" The man began pleading straight away and Saito tried placating him. "Calm down sir, please take a deep breath and then explain to me what you need my help with."

"Ah… yes yes… haaah… my name is Xiao, please sir, you have to help us. The governor is completely corrupt. He… he kidnaps women to use as his toys. We… the people can't stop him, his guards are too powerful. GDI are the only ones who can stop him." Xiao shuddered as he took a deep breath, the conflict in him written all over his face. "He's taken my daughter, please get her back… please, please, she's all I have left in this world."

"Those are serious allegations. I assume you have some proof? I cannot just arrest the governor on your word alone. Not when the brotherhood is just camped outside the city. From your words, I assume this has been going on for a while? Why hasn't this been reported before."

"Yes sir, oh thank you sir, I have a recording of the governor grabbing my…my d-daughter. We tried sir, we tried reporting him b-but the police are completely corrupt. Anyone trying to report him just disappears and we never see them again."

Saito collected the ancient thumb drive from Xiao who was on the verge of tears. Plugging it into a spare laptop, his lips curled as he viewed the footage.

"I see… this man has a lot to answer for. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"Oh thank you kind sir, w-will you arrest him now?"

"No."

Saito could barely bring himself to look at the devastated expression on Xiao's face but his decision stood.

"W-WHY!? WHY WON'T YOU DO ANYTHING!?"

"I'm sorry Mr Xiao, but right now the brotherhood is massing for an attack on Beijing. GDI needs the cooperation of the governor's forces if we are to repel the attack. I cannot arrest him now or we'll lose the support of his guards and NOD will win. Please try to look at the big picture, once NOD has been defeated the governor will be brought to justice and your daughter will be rescued, I promise it on my honour as an officer of GDI."

"SAVE IT YOU BASTARD!" Xiao slammed his fists down on the table with a loud thud and rose to his feet, immediately six assault rifles were trained on him, not that he noticed it in his rage and despair.

"I… I don't even know why I thought you were any different. You're just as corrupt as the accursed governor. Bah! I spit on your ancestor's graves. You're just another oppressor in the end."

"I am sorry Mr Xiao, but my hands are tied. Please try to understand, my actions are for the greater good. Private Jessup, please show him out." Waving his hands in the direction of the door, Saito was unable to meet the furious gaze of a desperate father after crushing his last hope.

Closing his ears to the angry curses directed his way, Saito waited till Xiao was far away enough that his ranting couldn't be heard anymore before moving.

With a violent surge of strength, the major flipped the table and slammed his fist against the interrogation room window hard enough to put cracks in it.

"Lieutenant. Do you think I made the right choice?"

His XO 1st lieutenant Alister shrugged before replying. "As a military officer, yes. His situation while pitiable means very little if we lose the city. NOD will sweep through and everyone dies anyway. But… as a father of two young daughters myself… sir, I really, really want to knock your teeth out right now."

"Duly noted, you may join the queue. Get a message to the governor, would you? Standing around twiddling our thumbs will get us nowhere except give NOD the time to build up even more troops. Have him send his guard to support our armour divisions. We will be moving on the scum camped outside as soon as everyone is in place. And do send him an invitation to take refuge here. This base is a lot more secure than his little palace after all."

"Yes sir."

-line break

Saito watched with grim satisfaction as NOD's MCV collapsed under the combined firepower of six predator battle tanks and a veritable mammoth.

It had taken three days of pitched battle but NOD's forces had been routed in the end. The death toll was far too high for comfort but a victory was a victory and the corrupt governor had finally checked in to his new 5-star accommodations in the garrison's detention barracks last night.

Idiot finally took up the offer of refuge after a stray cannon shell had demolished the west wing of his palace. Three blank walls and a metal bed would suffice for now until he could be transferred to a proper prison to await trial.

His reverie was interrupted by a messenger. "Sir, we have reports of rioting down by the governor's palace. A mob has broken in through the destroyed west wing and the guards are being overrun."

"Haaah… no rest for the weary is there. Send our troops in for riot suppression, non-lethal methods only. Ready an APC, I'll be going down in person.

-line break

The major stepped over the bloody corpses of a few civilians and the butchered remains of the guards. Didn't take a forensics expert to see what happened here. Guards used live ammo to disperse the rioters, didn't work, pissed em off and died screaming for it.

"What a waste of life."

Shaking his head, Saito headed down into the basement. Two riflemen stood at the ready and saluted as he approached.

"Sir, the old man is inside, says he'll shoot himself if anyone other than you tries to enter."

Saito nodded before approaching the door.

"Xiao! It's me, I came as you asked."

Soft sobbing could be heard and nothing else, taking that as an invitation, the major entered. Even if the man decided to start shooting, his armour would protect him long enough to disarm the civilian.

He thought he was ready for anything on the other side.

He was wrong.

Xiao was kneeling on the floor cradling the bloody body of a naked woman in his arms. A small pistol was clutched tightly in his right hand.

"No."

"Ah… c-commander, n-nice of you to join me *sob* t-tell me, did you win?"

"…Yes. NOD has been driven off and the city remains in our control. The governor is in our custody. Please… please put down the gun. We'll get you help."

"H-help? HELP!? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE NEEDED YOU!? *sob* My… my beautiful daughter… gone… murdered! If you had just helped us when I came to you… she would… she would… SHE WOULD STILL BE ALIVE TODAY!"

"I… I'm sorry for your loss. I didn't mean for things to turn out this way. Please, you must understand."

"Oh… I understand perfectly. Think about the big picture right? N-now you don't have to think about it anymore. It's right in front of you. Tell me is it beautiful? IS. IT. BEAUTIFUL?"

Saito fumbled as his mouth opened and closed but no words came out.

"Heh I know, it's hard to see the big picture behind all these corpses isn't it. M-my daughter was the one good thing I had left in my life after tiberium poisoning took my wife. And now she's gone too… don't worry my child… daddy's here. Daddy won't leave you behind again."

Saito's eyes widened as he realised what Xiao was about to do. Lunging forwards, he tried to stop it to no avail. "No! Wait, don't!"

Xiao was faster on the draw and his pistol met his temple before a single gunshot rang out.

-line break

As the memories faded, Saito found himself in an unfamiliar area. A maid was carrying a large pile of laundry and to take his mind off his past, Saito approached with an offer to help.

"I know you. You're that commoner familiar one of the mages summoned. I'm Siesta, thanks for the help."

"Good to know word of my existence has spread so quickly although I'm nothing special really, I'm Saito by the way."

Siesta giggled as the general shuffled the load to get a better grip. "You're too modest, I heard you were a general sir Saito."

"Just Saito will do, I'm not a noble and you're not military so no need to be so formal."

"If you insist Saito… why are you helping me anyway? Shouldn't you be with your master?"

"Partner. The relationship between me and miss Valliere is one of partners not master and servant. As to why I'm helping. Does anyone need a reason to help someone else? Besides, I like doing things with my hands that doesn't involve… well I just like doing things."

The night wore on as Saito assisted with the laundry and conversed with the maid, learning more about the new world he was in.

Eventually, he bid Siesta goodbye and followed the map the maid had given him back to Louise's room. Instead of entering the room, he elected to climb onto the roof and lay there under the stars.

With the twin moons hanging overhead, Saito stared into the heavens and let his mind wander further than he'd ever done so in his career in GDI up till his 'death'.

"So… god does give second chances. Where the hell do I go from here? I could build up a new GDI army with the MCV. Take over the world maybe? Bring down the oppressors and free the common people from the yoke of tyranny. Sounds poetic."

Letting loose a bout of self-deprecating laughter, the familiar turned on his side and closed his eyes, waiting for slumber to claim him.

'Who am I kidding, it sounds just like NOD.'

-line break

"Stupid familiar, you're supposed to listen to the orders of your master!"

"I am listening, I just choose to ignore them."

Saito and Louise were walking down the hall towards their classroom with the little spitfire bitching the general out for not following orders again.

"That's not, you can't do that! Just who do yo- Zerbst, grrr." Louise's angry tirade was cut off by the arrival of a third party. A very well endowed third party.

"My, my, if it isn't the resident zero, already losing control of your familiar? Oh I'm sorry, I meant the commoner you hired to act as a familiar."

"Grrr, shut up you stupid cow, don't you have some hearts to break somewhere? And I really did summon him as my familiar."

"Who's ever heard of summoning a commoner as a familiar? Guess you live up to the name." Kirche mocked before presenting her own pride and joy, a giant red lizard with a small flame on its tail.

"Behold my familiar Flame, a salamander straight from the Fire Dragon Mountains, isn't he cute?" She let out a small squee as she spoke.

Saito ignored the bickering between the two and knelt down to observe his fellow familiar. It gave off waves of heat just by being there but wasn't too unpleasant. "Well hello there. You remind me of a Charmander, are you gonna evolve into a Charizard in the future?"

Flame's response was to lick the general's face, eliciting a small chuckle. "Yes, yes, nice to meet you too."

"Pretty amazing isn't it, Flame matches my element perfectly, I am Kirche the ardent after all. But do tell, what exactly is the commoner supposed to say about yours hmm Louise? Oh I know, you're just a zero in the end Ohohohoho."

"What is zero supposed to mean exactly? I keep hearing that and I don't have a context. That said, I was known as the zero where I came from too."

Kirche started laughing loudly at Saito's admission. Louise on the other hand looked at her familiar with an unreadable expression. "Really? You were a zero too?"

Saito gave another mirthless chuckle before continuing. "Not a zero, _the_ zero. I gained that title after people started noticing my combat record. Zero defeats, zero enemies remaining, zero buildings left standing. Hence, the zero of ZOCOM."

Louise was now staring at him with wide eyes, on the one hand, it sounded too impossible to believe, more of that from another world nonsense. But on the other, his demeanour resembled her mother's too much at the moment and something told her questioning his status as zero was a bad idea.

"I still don't quite understand the basics of your magic and all so I can't say for sure what summoning me means but I'll take it that you have a lot of potential inside. Potential that I _will_ bring out."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Saito took the chance to ruffle Louise's hair with one hand.

"Hmm? I don't know what this zocom of yours is but I'll pay you double whatever short stuff here is paying you to act as her familiar. Trust me, I'll make it _worth_ your cooperation."

"You'll get nothing from me. I am Louise's partner, if you think I'll betray her for even a second, you're dead wrong. Tell your masters that she is under my protection, try anything and I'll eviscerate you myself."

The hostility in Saito's tone was palpable and left both nobles stunned. One never had any man speak to her like this before and the other never had anyone stand up for her like that.

"Come on partner, we need to get you to class. Enough time wasted on this amateur, tch, spies back home at least knew how to be subtle about things."

-line break

"Well… that was… interesting." Saito said dryly as he rubbed off the soot on his face. Class had been cancelled after the classroom suffered catastrophic existence failure.

"Shut up you stupid familiar, it-it's not my fault every spell I cast blows up! Now you know why they call me zero, zero magic, zero success, zero talent… zero hope."

"Really?" Saito answered in a sceptical tone. "Looks to me like you have a talent for explosions."

"But they're not supposed to blow up!" Louise was on the verge of tears now. 'Rule of steel, Rule of steel, you can cry when no one else is around.'

"I was looking through your textbook, it does say that mages will have issues with spells not of their element. Maybe you're just using the wrong one?"

"But I've tried all of them. Fire, water, wind, earth, it all blows up in my face, maybe I really am just a failure after all. I can't even do the summon servant spell right."

"Wasn't there one more? The void I believe it was."

"There hasn't been a void mage in 6000 years since the founder himself. A-anyway, claiming to be a void mage is heresy, there's no way I could be one."

"I don't know. You did summon me, and you are blowing up your spells for some reason. I was of the opinion that if you had no magic you'd be unable to get a reaction at all, not explode stuff. The whole no void mage for 6000 years thing might also be a little farfetched, who knows how many void mages were written off as failures because they either didn't get any training or simply didn't fall into one of the other elements."

"Tha-that's… even so, there's no way I could be a void mage. It's just not possible, I would have seen a sign by now."

"A sign like your explosions? All the signs in the world mean nothing if you close your eyes and refuse to see them. Eh, no need to get so worked up, I was just stating a possibility. I have two others if you wish to hear them."

"Oh?"

"Um hmm, first off, maybe you're just overloading every spell you cast. This is the most likely reason I think, discounting the void theory. If too little magic results in nothing, then wouldn't too much cause explosive failure? Sort of like a balloon. The other theory I have is that you are somehow messing up the casting process, which is less likely since you've been learning for a long time, though not entirely impossible."

"Not impossible how so?"

"Not everyone is born the same, some people are righthanded, others favour their left even if they're in the minority, there's nothing wrong with them. Maybe you're just like that, perfectly normal and capable of magic but the traditional methods just aren't suited to you."

"I-is that even possible?"

"Why not, there's no evidence against it. I don't know enough to conclude anything yet, so there's only one thing to do." A sadistic grin slid across Saito's face at this, instilling fear in Louise's heart. "Partner, on top of your physical training, we are going experimenting!"

-line break

"Y-you're a sadist."

"Nonsense, that was just a basic warmup routine, gotta keep fit in the military after all. Don't worry, you'll get used to it eventually."

"I'm a noble! Why do I have to train like a soldier idiot familiar!"

"Why wouldn't you need to train? War might come at anytime and didn't you say you wanted to be her majesty's knight? How do you expect to be of use to her if you're too weak to even look after yourself? A weak body is a weak mind and weakness is of no use to anyone."

"You said you were going to help me with my magic! How was all that running around and push-ups supposed to help me!?"

"Ah but we did learn something today. Your magic is affected by your emotions. Didn't you see the size of that blast? You wiped out a good chunk of the forest because you were frustrated and now we know at least one of the factors in play."

"That's… true."

"Lighten up, progress is a series of small steps not a giant leap. Today, you've taken your first step and that's enough."

The sun was setting and the sky was dyed in orange as the duo returned to the school after decimating the forest beyond. All Louise wanted was a bath at this point to wash off all the filth and soot accumulated from the day's events, sadly, her familiar had other ideas.

"The hell? Excuse me for a bit partner, blondie over there is picking on a maid, I'm going to rectify that."

"Wha! You can't do that! He's a noble, just leave the maid b-" Louise was cut off by the stare of disappointment coming from Saito.

"I'm disappointed in you. I understand that you've led a sheltered life up till now and you grew up with the mistaken belief that the nobility are necessary to guide the common folk to prevent them from destroying themselves. But didn't you also tell me that the nobility are supposed to protect the people not oppress them? And now instead of doing your duty, you and everyone else just stands around and does nothing. The hypocrisy is rich."

"Tha… that is… it's complicated okay? You can't just… wait where are you going!?"

"Relax, I'm a professional."

"You made two girls cry servant, I Guiche de Gramont will discipline you for that." Raising his hand, he prepared to slap Siesta.

The poor maid closed her eyes and awaited the inevitable. Only, the blow never landed. Nervously opening her eyes again, they snapped wide open in shock as she beheld Saito grasping onto the noble's hands.

"That's enough, you shame yourself with you actions."

"I- how dare you commoner! Release me at once! My father is general Gramont! He'll have you hung for this!"

Saito released his grip and watched as the noble stumble backwards from the sudden loss of resistance.

"I do believe I already said this, I don't give a damn who your old man is. So he's a general, big deal, I'm one myself and I don't think he'll appreciate you smearing dirt on his name."

"You dare insult me? I challenge you to a duel." His pompous proclamation was met with a flurry of whispers and cheers from the surrounding students, all eager to see some action.

"Oh real mature boy. I know what's going on, you were two timing and got caught. To save face you tried to take it out on a poor maid instead of owning up to your mistake since there's no way she could stand up to you right?"

The whispering increased in volume as the students found that the commoner's words rang true and a flush of shame spread across Guiche's face. Saito however, wasn't done.

"And now that I've called you out on your bullshit, you challenge me to a duel. You. A mage. Against little old me, a commoner with no chance of beating you. Just so you can assuage your own ego. For shame. For shame!"

Guiche's ears were burning now and opened his mouth to retract the challenge, Saito beat him to it.

"Fine, I accept."

"I will… what? You… you accept?" The whispering was now at a fever pitch, no one could believe what they were hearing. "F-fine, meet me in the vestri courtyard in half an hour."

His piece said, Guiche walked off to prepare.

Saito himself was distracted by Louise's hammering on him with her tiny fists, her rapid-fire words were hard to decipher but he got the gist. Idiot. Going to die. Apologise now. Unwinnable.

"Relax, you'll give yourself white hair from worrying so much. I know what I'm doing, I've faced far worse in my life."

"He's a noble! He'll kill you with his magic!"

"No he won't. he's a hundred years too early to even come close. If you'll excuse me partner, I need to collect some of my equipment from the room."

-line break

"Hmmph, so you actually showed up. I must commend you for not running away commoner."

"Run away from you? You grossly overestimate yourself. Come on, give me your best shot, I'll crush everything you can send at me and prove just how badly outmatched you are."

Saito slipped on his favoured melee weapons, twin titanium alloy knuckle dusters. Stained brown with the dried blood of many a NOD combatant, they were old friends. Power suffused his being and his focus sharpened as soon as he did so.

Staring at his left hand, he noticed the runes were glowing. 'Interesting, do I get a boost when I use a weapon? Needs more testing.'

Sliding into a combat stance, he readied himself for whatever Guiche would throw at him.

"Be honoured commoner, you face Guiche the bronze, few have ever had the glory of facing my bronze Valkyries in combat." Two rose petals fell off the wand and formed into metal golems, one carried a spear and the other a sword and shield.

"Huh… I don't see how being inexperienced in a fight is something to be proud off, but sure, if it helps you sleep at night. Now, come at me with the intention to kill."

"Tch, stop mocking me! Get him my loyal servants."

The twin golems rushed Saito with a speed that would be hard to follow for most people. But Saito wasn't just anyone, his senses honed from years of combat and now boosted by whatever strange magic was at work with the runes, the Valkyries might as well have been standing still.

Schooling his face into a blank mask, he waited till they closed the distance before striking.

Gunning for the sword and shield golem first, he sidestepped a spear thrust and executed a series of straight jabs to the golems chest, denting the armour inwards.

Normally a crippling blow, there was no flesh inside the suit of armour and the Valkyrie continued moving. Tilting his head to the left, Saito evaded the retaliatory sword strike and gave the spear wielder a small pull to send it toppling into its companion.

With it off balance, Saito ripped the spear away from it and sidestepped again to avoid the mess of limbs.

Twirling his new weapon around once, the general raised it overhead and jammed it down into the two fallen golems with enough force to punch through both and bury a third of the spear in the ground beneath them.

Bending the spear so the golems couldn't extricate themselves, Saito rose and dusted himself off before turning to Guiche with a single raised eyebrow.

"That it? That's the best you can do?"

"Th-this is impossible! No commoner can do that! Who… just who the hell are you!?" Guiche backed away, his face pale and sweating bullets.

"Brigadier general Hiraga Saito of GDI ZOCOM at your service. Now, is this all you have to offer? If so, I am very disappointed."

"Grrr… don't you, don't you look down on me!" Guiche roared before six more petals fell off his wand and six more golems rose out of the ground.

Unlike the precise movements of the first two, these were nothing more than a glorified mob, their movements slow and shabby, easy pickings for the soldier.

Saito didn't wait for them to approach, this time he took the fight to them. dashing forwards in a burst of speed, a solid right hook to the nearest golem punched the head clean off, the dented helmet smashing into a wall and becoming embedded there.

Sidestepping the retaliatory blows, he grabbed the headless golem and used it as a human shield, allowing a halberd and a spear to get stuck in it before chucking the remains at its compatriots, sending them to the ground.

The sound of air being cut alerted Saito to a sword descending on him from behind, doing a 180, he clapped his hands together and caught the blade.

A quick tug and the golem was relieved of its weapon. Spinning around, Saito buried the sword in the gut of another golem and roundhouse kicked the one he just disarmed hard enough to shatter it, taking both down for the count.

'One left and two are getting back up. Okay, let's do this.'

Ducking under a swing, he tackled the last golem standing to the ground and began beating on it with his fists until it was nothing more than a pile of twisted scrap metal.

Picking up a discarded sword, he strode over to where the last two golems had nearly finished extricating themselves from their fallen headless comrade, their actions even slower and more erratic now, hampered by Guiche's disturbed mental state.

Raising it over head, Saito brought it down again and again and again until all the remained was a pile of broken parts, barely resembling the Valkyries they were supposed to be.

Then, he turned to regard Guiche, face still blank and not showing any tiredness from his exertion.

The noble paled greatly as the familiar approached, a badly dented sword in hand and to him, with eyes promising bloody vengeance.

"I… I yield! I yield! Please don't hurt me!" Guiche dropped his wand and fell to his knees begging.

"I'll let you off this time on one condition, you apologise to the maid you wronged and never pull this shit again. Next time, well next time you might run into someone a lot less merciful." Saito tossed the misshapen sword at Guiche's feet before turning and walking away.

"Best change your attitude boy, if you do follow in your old man's footsteps and join the military as you are, you'll end up dead or worse."

"Wha, what do you mean."

"I'm only 19 boy, yet I'm a brigadier general. Do you have any idea just how much of high command has to be wiped out before something like this is even possible?"

"I-I don't understand."

Saito's face filled with distaste as the recalled the 'commanders' he served under in the past. "Most of the generals back home were much like you. Proud arrogant fools who believed themselves untouchable because of their station and power. NOD proved just how touchable they really were… whenever their own men didn't just take the chance to off them. See that you don't share their fate. Consider this a lesson, for you own sake, I hope it sticks."

-line break

Tiffa and the orphans watched with barely contained curiosity as the massive insect like metal behemoth transformed into a building larger than their home.

"MCV conversion complete, the cities of NOD on the rise."

Saito keyed a few commands on his data pad as he issued orders to the MCV to begin production of a refinery. There was no tiberium to be found on this world but that was fine, the MCV came with a reserve of 10,000 units ready for base construction.

The lack of a tiberium field was a resource issue but nothing crippling, after two years of analysing captured scrin technology along with whatever could be decoded from the tacitus had provided several large breakthroughs in technology. One of which was the revolutionary shrinking tech and another was the ability for safe production and processing of tiberium.

Too little too late to save Earth but it was exactly what he needed now. Limiting tiberium gathering to what could be produced with the tech alone instead of seeding an actual tiberium field would limit the speed at which he could gain resources but for the sake of not causing an ecological disaster the likes of which the world had never seen, he would make do with what he had.

"Lady Tiffa, the construction yard has living quarters inside, I recommend moving everyone into it. It is far more heavily armoured than the current installation you're in. Furthermore, should the Reconquista come before defences are operational, the construction yard is capable of packing up into the MCV and moving."

Watching as his new protectorate nodded and began to shift the belongings he'd told them to pack earlier, he returned his attention to the data pad.

Magic was an unknown variable and Tiffa didn't know enough to give him a good estimate on the strength of enemy forces. Supposedly, this village was out of the way of any major trade routes and safe from the brewing civil war for the time being.

Just thinking about the civil war caused him to narrow his eyes. Initially, he was in full support of the Reconquista movement when he heard about it from the half-elf.

Men and women tired of being oppressed by the royal family finally took up arms against their oppressors to carve out their own future free from tyranny. NOD too was born amidst such a movement, historically, NOD's forces had come from the oppressed, the down trodden, the forgotten.

Saito wanted to commit his forces to their cause but Tiffa had objected to that. She just wanted to be left in peace and not bring pain to anyone. A noble sentiment if a naïve one in Saito's opinion. War was coming one way or another, the fuse on this powder keg had already been lit and no one would be able to stop the fires of liberation from sweeping through the land.

Only, things weren't that cut and dry… as usual.

His support for the cause waned as soon as he heard that Reconquista was run by nobles and led by a priest with delusions of grandeur and desired nothing short of global domination. Supporting them just meant supporting another tyrant.

Really, the more he heard about them from the children and Tiffa, the more he came to the opinion that the only differences between Reconquista and the royal family were their names and scope of their ambition.

As a loyal follower of the prophet, Saito would die before he allowed himself to be part of the rise of a new tyrant. A small amount of worry ate at him as he considered the possible future. A lifetime of experience fighting GDI did nothing to prepare him for the scrin and likewise did nothing to prepare him for magic.

The Marked of Kane were tough and would not go down without a fight but against people capable of bending the very world to their will, he wasn't sure how they would match up, and until he had a sizeable force built up, did not want to risk drawing the wrong kind of attention.

"New primary objective, attain stealth technology to hide the base. Secondary objectives, build up an army to repel hostiles, develop information network. Tertiary objective, end oppression of the commoners at the hands of the nobility."

Staring at the points he just wrote, Saito nodded to himself, satisfied that he had a plan going forward for the short term at least.

Putting the data pad away, he looked around at the peaceful landscape. In all nineteen years of his existence he'd never even seen anything like this. The closest he'd ever come was very old pictures of a forest long destroyed by the tiberium scourge. Even when he'd been fighting in the blue zones, steel and concrete was the dominant feature… whenever it hadn't been ground to dust by his troops anyway.

Nature like this was a wonder to behold and if he wasn't here in person he'd never have believed such a thing was possible.

Saito found himself liking the place more and more the longer he remained here. "Alright, new objective, preserve environment and kill anyone who tries to defile it. Don't think I'm done fighting yet with the civil war on the rise, but that's okay, for lady Tiffa I will bear arms again. One vision, one purpose, peace through power."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 3: Spark of the rebellion

"Why do I need a sword again? I'm good with a blade but I prefer my dusters for close encounters of the bloody kind." Saito questioned Louise as they strolled down the main street. It was the day of the void, some kind of holiday he didn't particularly care for and classes were out for the day.

Instead of spending the time training or working out pinkie's magic though, it had been unilaterally decided that they would be heading down into the city to stock up on supplies and obtain a sword for him. Normally, Saito would never have agreed to such a waste of time but on the account that Louise had been working hard recently he'd decided to give her a break.

"You need a proper weapon, not those barbaric pieces of metal you swing around. Its bad enough people still believe I hired a mercenary to be my familiar, I don't need people thinking you're a barbarian as well."

"Nonsense, my dusters are a work of art! I had them forged from the wreckage of the first avatar I brought down myself. I will have you know, where I come from, these are a gentlemen's weapon."

The look on Louise's face clearly displayed that she wasn't buying any of it. "Why do I not believe you? And do you have any more secret abilities you want to tell me? Like I don't know, how you can keep up with a galloping horse on foot!?"

"What can I say, GDI has trained me well… as to what else I can do, what did I teach you about classified information again?"

Louise heaved a sigh as her familiar evaded her questioning yet again, it was starting to become a habit and she didn't even know why she bothered anymore. Nothing about herself was normal so why should her familiar be any different, familiars were supposed to be reflections of the mage after all.

"Information to be given on a need to know basis. Right now, I don't need to know. Information I don't have is information that cannot be taken. Did I miss anything oh great and wonderful sensei?"

Her sarcastic answer was met with a cheerful "nope!" from the current bane of her existence. "Well, we're here, please for the love of Brimir don't start a fight."

"Oh come on partner, I don't start fights, I just end them. It's not my fault those nobles believe their faces are tougher than my fists. Besides, the headmaster doesn't have a problem with it. I do believe he called it character building."

"Ah welcome dear customers gehk! A noble!? Uh, I mean all the wares are the real deal and fairly priced. Nothing criminal going on here."

The shop was dimly lit, curtains covered the windows and allowed minimal sunlight in, the only source of illumination within the shop was a small gas lamp. The shelves and display rack were cluttered with weapons and a single suit of armour stood near the counter as decoration.

"Very well, I'm here as a customer today. I'm looking for a sword, give me your best and spare no expense." Louise spoke imperiously before her attention was drawn to her familiar repeatedly introducing his forehead to the wall.

"What are you doing stupid familiar?"

"Haaah… it seems I still have a lot I need to teach you about how this world works." Saito waited for the shopkeeper to disappear into a backroom before continuing.

"In an establishment like this, you do not ask for the best and most expensive items. You do not ask for anything, period. You just look around until you find what you need, only ask for the backroom stuff if you know the owner personally or have a contact."

The familiar sniffed disdainfully and cast his gaze around the shady shop. "Really, anyone who tries to assure you that they aren't doing anything criminal and that their prices are 'fair' are highly suspect. Just you wait partner, when he comes back out, he's going to present some flashy but completely useless weapon and charge you a fortune for it."

True to his words, the shopkeeper came out carrying a massive greatsword made entirely out of gold and set with countless precious gems. "This is the best weapon I have in my whole shop. Crafted by the great Germanian alchemist Lord Shupei, this is something most nobles wish they could wield. Only the truly mighty may wield this."

Louise's gaze never once left the mirror like sheen of the blade, entranced by her own reflection in it. "And that's not all my lady, countless enchantments are built into the blade itself, this thing will cut through steel without any resistance and is almost completely impervious to damage. This is a sword worthy of a king, nay a legend!"

The young noble was practically drooling now as she bought into the sales pitch completely. "If you buy this, I guarantee you not even that dastardly thief Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt will dare try to steal from you. Tell you what, you seem like a nice girl, I'll let you have this beauty for just 2000 ecus or 3000 new gold coins."

"What!? That's enough money to buy a brand-new holiday villa! I only brought 100 new gold coins with me." As Louise's spirits began to sink, Saito spoke up for the first time since the sword was brought in.

"That's pretty expensive for a sword. Tell me, what happens if the sword doesn't live up to your words? I mean, enough gold to buy a new house isn't a small amount you know. Not that I doubt your words or anything but what if you're wrong?"

"Ah? I stand by the quality of my goods and I assure you dear customer, all my goods have undergone a thorough vetting process. If it doesn't live up I'll give you a full refund."

"I see… very well, we'll take it."

"B-but we don't have the money for it!"

"Correction. You don't." Saito removed a heavy bag of gold from within his jacket and tossed it on the counter where it landed with a solid thump. The cord unfurled and within several gold coins slid out to the widened eyes of Louise and the shopkeeper. "There's two thousand gold coins in that bag, you'll get the other thousand once I've made sure I'm getting my money's worth."

"Uh… uh yes, yes of course! Feel… feel free… to… uh…" the shopkeeper could barely reply, all his attention was fixed on counting the coins and celebrating the fact that he'd hit the jackpot.

Saito ignored the disbelieving look from his partner and grasped the hilt. Picking it up in one hand, he inspected the weapon. 'balance is completely off and its way too light to be made from gold. Yup, it's a load of crap like I thought, well, time to test it out.'

He pretended to continue inspecting the blade before swinging it down on the counter without warning. The pristine blade shattered on contact with the stone desk and he received two yelps of surprise for his efforts.

Tossing the broken sword on the desk, Saito swiped the bag of gold from under the nose of the stunned shopkeeper.

"I paid for an indestructible gold sword you cheat, not a toy made out tin and lead. You have any swords in here actually worth my time?"

Turning to Louise, he gave an exaggerated sigh before speaking again, "right, I do hope you've learnt your lesson partner. Never trust shady salesman in rundown shops, most of the time they're trying to defraud you."

"Gahahaha, he's got you pinned old chap. Eh, you seem like you know your way around swords, come over here for a sec would ya?"

"Oh shut up Derf, don't you have anything better to do than annoy me and my customers?"

"Well since I'm not going anywhere and you just left me in a corner… not really." The voice was coming from a pile of swords and Saito's eyes picked out one of the swords that seemed to be moving its guard on its own.

"Talking swords? Guess you see something new every day." Picking his way across the clutter, Saito drew the weapon out of the pile and noticed it was old. Very old. Rust covered virtually ever inch of the blade and the scabbard was so tattered it was barely hanging on.

"What's the matter kid? Never seen a talking sword before?" The guard moved on its own again and Saito was sure the voice was coming from it and not someone trying to trick him into buying another piece of crap. The power he'd come to associate with wielding a weapon suffused his being so at least he knew it was still viable.

"I think I'll take this."

"B-but its just a piece of junk! Look at it! Is there anything on it that isn't rusted or falling to pieces?"

"How rude! Little lady, I'll have you know that you stand in the presence of the great Derflinger. You should count your lucky stars, few have ever managed to do so."

"Yeah, mostly because you annoy all of them into leaving or returning you." The shopkeeper grumbled as he buried his face in his hands, still lamenting the failure of his scam.

"I'll take it."

"Knock yourself out boy, that'll be 1000 new gold coins."

"I have a better offer, you give this to me for free alongside a maintenance kit and I won't report you to the authorities. How does that sound?"

"F-fine! Take it and go! I don't want to deal with you people anymore!" the shopkeeper pulled out a small wooden box from beneath the counter and chucked it at Saito's head. The amused general just plucked it out of the air with one hand, after checking to ensure it held exactly what it was supposed to, he chuckled and motion for Louise to leave with him.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Piss off!"

"What was that!? You… you just made him give you a sword for free. And… and why didn't you ask for a better sword if you could have any of them."

"That, is what you call negotiating. One of my duties as general was to conduct negotiations from time to time so I'm well versed in the art. As to why this particular sword… it's a talking sword. How can I not want it?"

"Gahahah, I'm starting to like you, wielder. This is the start of a glorious partnership."

"Still, I must warn you Derf, I'm not a sword person. I'm a more hands-on type of guy."

"Hmmm… well, we'll work something out eventually. As long as you don't leave me in a corner to rot I think we'll get along just fine."

Seeing that she was being left behind, Louise hurried to catch up with her familiar. "And how did you get that much money anyway? That's more gold than I have in the school, it's more gold than what my parents send me for an entire year!"

"Oh the gold? Well, I am a stranger in a strange land, there's no harm in stocking up some reserve currency for emergencies. It's a good habit to have pinkie. The gold itself was from the headmaster to answer your question. I did a bit of negotiating with him while you were at class and we came to an agreement."

"Please tell me you didn't threaten him…"

"Of course not, I just made a few suggestions and we came to a mutually beneficial arrangement. Besides, he's the one with the better end of the deal."

"I don't suppose you'll be telling me what that deal is?"

"Need to know partner, need to know."

-line break

Saito ducked under a water whip before leaping back to take distance. Outwardly his face remained impassive but he was grinning on the inside, yet another noble had challenged him to a duel, ostensibly to avenge some great insult he'd given.

On account of his unprecedented strength and brutality, the nobles had quickly figured out that challenging him in a match with victory conditions set to opponent's inability to stand was a very bad idea. Rules of the current match were first to first blood by any means necessary.

His opponent was doing his best to use the rules against him, surrounding himself with two rings of rapidly spinning high pressure water jets and striking out with ranged attacks from behind his shield. Credit where credit was due, it was a decent strategy, any attempt to close the distance would end with Saito being struck by either the attacks or the spinning rings, losing him the match.

Sure, the general had a stock of knives on him he could always start chucking. He wasn't anywhere near good enough to rate as an expert but he had confidence in hitting a relatively stationary target. That would secure the win but victory wasn't on the cards for this match.

Nope, Saito was going to lose.

And.

That meant another payday.

He'd received word from the headmaster, this time round the faculty had started wising up and were beginning to place their bets on him. To keep up appearances, the old fogey had bet on him again but through his secretary had placed a side bet.

Time to take a fall and rake in the dough.

Saito had been pretty pissed when he found out about the betting ring set up by the headmaster after one of the professors had gotten the idea to 'convince' him to throw the next match or else. The general had laughed his ass off at the perpetrator's non-existent attempt to hide his trail and left an unmarked dagger buried next to the man's head while he was asleep. No evidence leading back to him but the message had been sent.

He'd confronted the headmaster after that and in the end, they'd worked out an agreement. Keep fighting according to the headmaster's schedule and collect a share of the proceeds. A small part of his conscience protested that beating up a bunch of kids for spending money was highly unethical. That part was swiftly and silently assassinated by his more mercenary side before it could gain ground.

He didn't even remember the name of the guy he was fighting, some Katar or something, one of the few water line class mages among the second years. Saito had a good grasp of the boy's skill levels now and he had to say that this one was better than most of the trash he'd crushed.

Not quite good enough to beat him yet but the potential was there. The show had been going for ten minutes now and they'd drawn quite a crowd.

'About time I think, he's starting to tire and I think I've done enough to make it look like an actual defeat.'

Saito slowed down the speed of his swings as though he was getting tired. Dodging to the left, he swung Derf and cut two water whips apart before being too slow to turn away from the third.

There was a brief burning sensation as the whip scored a line down his right cheek and blood began to flow. The gasps of shock from his audience were audible as he took his first defeat since beating Guiche days ago.

Lowering Derf, Saito reached up and rubbed his bloody cheek before inspecting the hand. "I'm bleeding… congratulations. This match is yours, I look forward to fighting you again someday."

Saito bowed before walking off, leaving the stunned crowd behind. Time to collect his winnings after all. His journey was interrupted by a large red lizard blocking his path.

"Well hello there, nice to see you again Charmander." He reached out to pet the lizard's head before the familiar stretched out its neck to grab hold of his sleeve, trying to drag him elsewhere.

"Woah, slow down boy!"

The salamander dragged him all the way to his master's room. Saito noted the dim lighting and scent of… spices? Kirche was seated on the bed wearing a very revealing outfit that accentuated her body extremely well.

"What. Do. You. Want."

Kirche let out a soft giggle before switching to a more suggestive pose. "No need to be so uptight dear, I think we got off on the wrong foot… so why don't we… get. To. Know. Each. Other. Hmm?"

The general resisted the urge to sigh, she was a student, a child, this called for some tact.

"Piss off bitch."

"What!?"

"I told you already, I am Louise's partner and you will get nothing from me. Tell your masters I will die before I betray her… and that you need work before you're even ready to be a spy."

"I am not a spy!" Kirche responded hotly, offended by Saito's accusations. "And I'd never do anything to hurt Louise, she's my friend!"

Saito dragged up the memories of the interactions between Louise and Kirche before huffing in disbelief. "Could have fooled me. You're a Germanian and she's the daughter of a duke, excuse me if I don't buy that you're not trying to exploit her."

"But I'm not!"

"Tell it to someone who cares. This is your last warning lady Zerbst, you try to get to Louise through me again and I'll see to it that you have an accident."

Saito did an about face and wrenched open the door, coming face to face with the pinkie in question. "Come on partner, there's nothing to be done here. I've already given the spy one last notice."

The duo walked away in silence, leaving the shocked Kirche behind.

"Hey familiar."

"Yes?"

"Would you… would you really hurt Kirche if she tries to sed… get you again."

"Of course not partner, I would never hurt her. If she's still breathing after I'm done then I've failed."

Louise stopped in her tracks at Saito's casual mention of assassinating her fellow classmate. "You'd kill her? Just for trying to-"

"If she does have an accident it will be because she's still trying to spy on you."

"She's not a spy!"

"Of course she's a spy." Saito chided Louise and made a mental note to bump national politics up on the teaching schedule.

"A Germanian noble studying in a Tristainian school? Even if she isn't consciously spying, I have zero doubts that her letters to home are read by Germanian intelligence."

"You're not making sense, Kirche would never do something like that!"

"She doesn't have to, you can learn a lot about something just by observing. Look around you partner, this is the most prestigious institution in all of Tristain, the students here are the future leadership of your nation. What self-respecting nation won't have eyes and ears in this place? This is where the future is built, and if you have a hand in it, you can bend a nation to your will. Children are far more malleable than adults, and this is the best place to try influencing them. So many future leaders gathered in one place without any of their more politically savvy parents around to protect them. The only way things could be anymore perfect would be if the staff themselves were foreign agents… a possibility I am not ruling out yet."

"Aren't you overthinking things?"

"Nope. Tell me partner, how many boys have fallen under her sway now? How many more will do so? You're still young so I can forgive you for not seeing it but that has to change. By virtue of who you're related to, plenty of people will seek to use you and you'll be the one hurt in the end."

"…But she's my friend. Can't I… can't I even be friends with others now?"

"I never said that. Just be careful about what you do and say, even if Zerbst isn't actively spying on you, don't think for an instant that others aren't watching. Like that mage with the dragon, Tabitha. Her posture, her eyes, her actions… she's either a spook or a field agent, haven't really got her pinned yet but she's definitely foreign intelligence."

"No way! She's always so quiet."

"Out of sight, out of mind. People tend to be looser with their actions and words when they think no one's watching. And she doesn't have to do much I think, Zerbst can usually be found in her company when not fooling around. No doubt all that bragging will have given her quite a good deal of data to send to her superiors."

"And what about you then? I know you've been spending time near her. You even play chess with her on the roof after school!"

"I'm keeping her in check. I know she's a spy. She knows that I know she's a spy. But neither of us has the evidence or need to do anything… yet."

"…What?"

"Point is, by being there, she can't do anything overtly suspicious, not without giving me a reason to bust her and blow her cover. Hmm… she could probably use magic to continue her espionage even with me present but as long as she doesn't know the extent of my abilities, she won't go too far. Any potential damage is limited as long as I'm a wild card. And relax, I may not like her profession but I won't off her without very good reason, the spy you know is always better than the new one you don't that they slip in after you take out the old."

Louise bowed her head as he considered her familiar's words. To her horror, she could see the logic in them and that left a sense of disquiet in her stomach. "How do you live with it then? If you're right, then won't the paranoia eat at you? I… I never asked for this. I just… I just…"

"I got used to it. You wanted to be a noble, this _is_ the life of a noble, the sword of Damocles hangs overhead eternally. I just opened your eyes to it early. Write to your family, ask them about it. I'm sure they have better advice for you than I can give."

"…Okay…"

-line break

Inquisitor Saito sat at the bar nursing a drink, construction efforts at the orphanage was coming along smoothly. Tiberium reserves were starting to run low due to usage far outstripping its generation but he'd just have to grin and bear it.

On the bright side, the disruption towers had finally been completed and construction on a fourth refinery had begun, once it was complete he should have the resources needed to begin construction on turrets.

Taking another sip of the cheap watered-down ale, he sighed and mused about how his charges were doing. The fighting was between Reconquista and the royalists was beginning to escalate and the only defences at the base were the towers and six measly squads of awakened.

Saito grimaced as he pushed aside the thought of Westwood village being overrun by enemies. His current situation felt too much like some of the more desperate struggles he was part of during the final days of the third tiberium war.

After the visitors arrived and began mopping the floor with both the GDI oppressors and NOD, the rules of engagement had changed. Before that, he could count on allied support going in, once most of the military infrastructure in the yellow zones had been ground to paste however, most of that support was cut off.

What followed was mission after desperate mission of trying to smuggle in enough troops and supplies to build up a proper force without being discovered and exterminated by enemy air superiority. Most of the time, his forces only lasted for a single successful mission before the enemy regrouped and crushed them.

Constantly on the run with little more than an MCV and light armour for protection, every thing else was too visible and had to be abandoned or face complete annihilation. Still, at least he was stationed in the ruins of the cities where his forces could camouflage against the background, even the massive MCV. He pitied the poor souls who had to fight in the Amazonian desert, may the prophet guide them to paradise.

And thinking about doomed causes brought him back to his current conundrum. At least back on Earth retreating and hiding was always an option. Right now though, they were stuck on an island. A floating island. In the middle of the sky.

Just the thought of it drew out a long-suffering sigh from the commander. Where the hell was he supposed to evacuate Tiffa and the orphans to? Where could they run that the enemy couldn't follow?

The Marked were tough sons of bitches and could punch way above their weight but magic was a complete wild card. He had no idea how the awakened would fair against mages and he did not want to find out until he had a stronger army.

The base was hidden but NOD never did figure out how to stealth the disruption towers themselves and Albion was famous for their thrice damned dragon knights. All he needed was one patrol to fly past and shit would rain from the sky.

Those dragons were said to be bullet proof and the muskets of this world could barely scratch them. Sure, his guns were far more advanced and they were designed to put down fleshlings but he also remembered just how tough the scrin 'fleshlings' were.

Saito needed an air force and he needed it bad, but he was just too damned strapped for tiberium to be able to afford an air tower and the flights of venom patrol craft he desired. Shit, he didn't even have the funds for a war factory and some basic vehicles like the attack bikes and raider buggies.

Downing the remaining dregs of his drink, the inquisitor weighed the two options in his head. A proper air force would allow him to fight off both air and ground offensives but there was no guarantee that he'd be able to amass enough air power to hold the base before they were attacked in force.

On the other hand, he could commit his resources to a war factory and pump out enough bikes and buggies to evacuate Westwood's inhabitants in the event of discovery. But, that would leave him dangerously short on supplies and in the event they were never discovered, set his production schedule far behind.

Saito grunted as the friendly barkeep took his cup and topped up his drink before setting it down in front of him. "Here you go kid, on the house. Gotta keep our spirits up in these dark times eh?"

The inquisitor grunted in acknowledgement before taking a sip of the drink, enjoying the feel of it burning down his throat.

"So what troubles you?"

"Nothing."

"Come on kid, it's never nothing. A problem shared is a problem halved, so tell old uncle Charles what troubles you. Hmm, no don't tell me… you got an eye on some wench then? Don't quite know how to approach her? Never fear, I may not look like it but I was quite the charmer back in the day, I'll share a few tips with you, just gotta ask."

"Sigh… nothing quite like that. I'm worried about the civil war. They say the fighting's only going to worsen and… I don't know how to protect my family. I'd get them to evacuate but this is a floating island, where would I run to that the fires of war won't follow?"

"Hmmm…" Charles' face wrinkled in contemplation before he spoke again.

"Well, normally I'd say pick up a sword and fight for king and country, best way to protect yourself from those Reconquista scum is to beat them back after all. But yeah… have you considered moving them to the mainland? I hear Tristain's weather is pretty good this time of year. Then there's always Romalia, no better time than now for a pilgrimage I think."

"I did consider that, but we don't have the money for it and we don't know anyone in the other nations. For better or for worse, our roots are planted firmly in Albion."

"Hmm, then all you can do is keep your head down and pray to the founder Reconquista doesn't come knocking. Commoners like us can't do much against those nobles. The sooner the royalists win the sooner we can go back to our lives."

"I don't see what's so good about the royals though. Aren't they nobles as well, this civil war looks like a pissing contest between two power hungry groups with the people caught in the middle."

"OI! Watch your words kid, that's blasphemy right there."

"Sorry, sorry, not in the best of moods right now." Saito sighed and placated the irate barkeep before downing his drink.

"Hmmph, yeah I understand, having your family safety on the line can do that to a person but do be careful of who you say that kind of thing to yeah? Some people don't take to kindly to the kind of talk that can get entire villages condemned as heretics to be burnt at the stake, specially if you're insulting Cromwell"

"…Surely you jest."

Saito gave Charles a disbelieving stare only to be met by a dead serious one, the barkeep swept the room with a cautious glance before lowering his voice and speaking once he was sure there was no one else in the bar with them.

"I'm 100% serious here kid, you know the leader of Reconquista? The self-proclaimed will of the founder? The bastard Cromwell? He's been going on about how it is our god given mission to launch a holy crusade against the elves to reclaim the holy lands. That because good King James has failed to even attempt preparing for one is proof that he is a heretic and has lost the right to lead."

Charles took a large swig from his own mug and swore a blue streak.

"Yellow-bellied coward had the guts to claim that it was with _great reluctance_ that he had to step up to the throne to ensure the founder's will be done. Never mind the fact that a holy crusade is a death sentence. I'll bet you my life savings that he'll remain here feasting while the men get slaughtered by those bloody monsters."

"Are the elves really that terrifying?"

"Kid what the heck have your parents been teaching you?"

"Nothing, they've been dead for years, I mostly live alone but with recent events, I've reconnected with my extended family."

"Aiee, open mouth insert foot. Well, a long time ago, there was another crusade to reclaim the holy land, a united effort led by the church including some of the most power mages to ever live. All twenty thousand of them were exterminated by just over five hundred elves."

"T-that's… insane."

"It gets worse, five hundred is probably an exaggeration to make their defeat look less terrible, the actual number was probably in the double digits."

"…"

"Yeah, and Cromwell wants us to march against them. There was a poor kid who spoke up against the suicidal nature of marching against the elves, founder rest his soul. Cromwell heard about it and had the entire village declared heretics for sheltering a blasphemer. They burned everything to ash, him and his treacherous dragon knights. They tossed the people who tried to run back into the flames you know. So yeah, you want to keep your family safe? Pray for Reconquista's defeat and keep any complaints to yourself, don't know who might be listening in."

"Yeah, got it, thanks for the advice."

Saito drained his drink as he processed the new information. Charles was clearly in the royalist camp and his view was almost certainly coloured but his words couldn't be dismissed out of hand. He'd heard enough about Cromwell to know the man was a religious fanatic who wouldn't be out of place among the black hand if he wasn't a despot in the making.

This was the third village he'd visited and opinion on the man was the same everywhere, even those against the king preferred the monarch over Cromwell.

'Shame, in another world we might have been comrades. But here, I will not allow your vision of tyranny to become reality. Note to self, rebuild the fate squads, a dedicated assassination unit should come in handy.'

His musing was interrupted by the doors being thrown open and a distressed man stumbled through. "Charles, you got to come quick! Reconquista is here! Baron Dreyar and his dragon knights are in the village square!"

"What!? What the hell do you mean they're here!? Weren't they stationed at Midgand fortress?"

"We don't know! The son of a bitch is calling everyone to the square… I… I think he's holding an execution."

"Shit. Who?"

"Don't know. Came here as soon as I heard him gathering people."

"Damn, just… damn. Alright, let's go see what the bastard wants."

Saito's interest was peaked as he made to follow behind the two men who had completely passed over his presence in their worry.

By the time they made it to the village square, a makeshift platform had already been built using earth magic. Three stakes had been set up and there were already three unfortunates lashed to them.

A single man in fancy dress stood in front of the condemned addressing the crowd, a ways behind him were three dragons, two of them still had their riders mounted. Saito frowned, taking all of them out before they could start firing on the crowd would be a little difficult, he needed a better angle and began repositioning himself even as the noble spoke.

"These men stand before you guilty of the crime of heresy. It is the duty of every citizen, nay the duty of every human being to support Reconquista in their efforts to reclaim the holy lands. They…"

An ugly expression flicked across the inquisitor's face as the words dragged up a particularly painful memory he thought he buried long ago. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a young child, no older than seven crying out for his father, one of the men on 'trial'

"They have refused to aid Reconquista in our noble cause, and in their refusal have proven their allegiance to the false king." (They have refused to assist GDI in our investigation, they have proven that their loyalties are with Kane.)

"Royalist sympathisers are a threat to everyone, not just the brave men of the Reconquista who fight to protect Albion but all of you as well, they would have you oppressed by a mad man!" (NOD supporters are a danger to everyone, not just the soldiers of GDI, we are here to help, _they_ would have you swear yourselves to a mad man with delusions of godhood.)

"Only through us will you be protected from the threat of the elves, the tyranny of a mad man." (Only through GDI will you be protected from the scourge of Tiberium, the dictatorship Kane would impose.)

"All we ask is that you help support your protectors in these trying times." (All we ask is that you help support your protectors in these trying times.)

"And yet these men won't even do that, they spat on our goodwill and would hoard vital supplies for their own greed." (And yet these men refuse to even do that, they spit on the sacrifices we've made, they withhold the truth for their own twisted ideals.)

Saito began inching forward again only to be caught by a strong grip from Charles. "The hell do you think you're doing kid, trying to get yourself killed?"

"I cannot stand by and watch."

"They're nobles! Dragon knights to boot, you'll get yourself killed, you'll get everyone killed!" The harsh whisper was laced with more than a little bit of worry.

"Relax royalist spy, I know what I'm doing."

"Wha!? I… hey wait, come back!" Taking advantage of Charles' surprise, Saito twisted his arm free and vanished into the crowd. "Shit."

"It saddens me that its come to this but for the good of the land, they must be put down." (It pains my heart greatly that this is the only recourse available, but for the sake of peace, they must be executed.)

"LIES! YOU COME INTO OUR HOMES! DESTROY OUR LAND, OUR LABOUR, TAKE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPECT US TO SMILE ABOUT IT!? King James may not be the best monarch but at the very least he never tormented the common people so! LONG LIVE THE KING!"

(DECIEVER! YOU'VE DESTROYED EVERYTHING WE HOLD DEAR, TAKEN OUR HOMES, OUR FAMILIES, OUR VERY LIVES! YOU CALL YOURSELVES SAVIOURS BUT WHERE WERE YOU WHEN TIBERIUM DESTROYED OUR CROPS!? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN TIBERIUM POISONED OUR WATER!? IT WAS NOD WHO SAVED US, NOD WHO GAVE US HOPE! IF WE MUST DIE, SO BE IT! IN THE NAME OF KANE!"

The pompous noble struck the defiant man across the face with an armoured gauntlet, the steel tearing open his cheek and leaving a bloody mess behind. (The GDI commando whipped the defiant man across his cheek with his pistol, knocking out a few teeth in the process.)

"Silence traitor!" (Silence traitor!)

"Your guilt is without question, even at the end you refuse to repent. In the name of our true king Cromwell and the founder Brimir, I sentence you to death!" (NOD scum, even now you still spit on everything the GDI have done for you, you disgust me. When I kill you, best pray for your prophet to intercede on your behalf, otherwise it's a one way trip down.)

"FATHER! FATHER! NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!" The poor kid from before was wailing now as a woman next to him, presumably his mother tried to comfort him while holding back the tears in her eyes.

In one world, a child watched as his father was murdered in cold blood by a ruthless oppressor. Watched as his mother joined him in death when the grief-stricken woman rushed forwards and was promptly cut down in a hail of gunfire.

"Not again. Never again."

Baron Dreyar raised his wand and prepared a fire spell to set the stakes alight. A sadistic smile played across his face before it morphed into one of shock and then agony as his wand vanished along with the hand holding it into a cloud of red mist.

The gunshot rang out across the square and in the aftermath, the village was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Then the baron started to scream and chaos reigned.

The villagers dropped to their knees with hands over their heads unsure of what was going on and praying for a miracle. The two mounted dragon knights fought to keep their dragons under control even as they tried to keep their own emotions in check.

Sure, all of them knew about the existence of firearms, the supposed great equalisers between the worthless commoners and the masters of the world. Hopelessly inaccurate and lacking the punch needed to break through even a simple mid-level defence spell with anything short of a massed volley. Yet here was someone was accurate enough to shoot the baron's hand clean off and breach the basic wards he kept up at all times.

A single man stepped forward, dressed in a simple peasant's outfit, he would have passed for any ordinary commoner save for his peculiar hair. Most of the people in the village had blonde or brown hair but this one had pitch black hair and his eyes screamed for blood.

Inquisitor Saito marched forward, his gun arm snapped up and fired again, the report echoed through the village as the single unmounted dragon collapsed. Dead from a HE round to the eye that promptly turned the brain behind it into thick soup.

"No. A child will not be losing his parent, not today. Not while I'm here."

"Wh-who the hell are you bastard! Y-you dare oppose Reconquista!?"

Saito fired again and the knight's dragon collapsed as well.

The final knight had retained enough of his wits to pull out his wand and ready a spell. "I don't know w-who the hell you are but you will die here commoner. Y-your musket does not frighten me. I… I have magic!"

"No. what you have is a spell, and the hope that once you cast it I'll no longer be standing, because if I am, you'll be dead before you have the time to prepare another."

"I… I'm not afraid of you! Fireball!" An orb of fire collected at the tip of the wand as the mage dumped all of his willpower into one massively overpowered attack and was about to be loosed when Saito's bullet struck his arm.

Before the knight could scream, his spell imploded on itself and both him and his dragon went up in a tower of flames.

"I'm still standing."

The dragon knight on the ground began pushing himself backwards, sliding across the platform on his ass. Tears dribbled down his face as snot ran from his nose, his wand had been lost during his fall from his mount and he had nothing on him to keep the monster away.

"St-stay away! Don-Don't come any closer! I… I'm warning you! I-if you kill me, Reconquista will burn this village to the ground! Y-yes! That's right! you care for these worthless commoners don't you? Ahhahahaha! You will let me go or they will all die and you will have no one to blame but yourself. I… a-aren't you listening!? Sta-stay back. No. no! NO!"

Saito pocketed the pistol as the knight reached the body of the baron's dragon and couldn't back up any further. Reaching down, the inquisitor clasped both hands around his neck and hauled him into the air, on display for the villagers.

The knight kicked at Saito desperately in the vain attempt to get his executioner to release him.

"Sic semper tyrannis." He whispered softly before increasing his grip strength until there was a crack and the body went limp.

Letting the body fall to the ground with a soft thud, Saito drew a knife from his boot and cut the prisoners free before dragging the still screaming baron to his feet.

"People of Camlann! I present to you, your oppressors. These are the men who would trample on you on account of their founder given ability to use magic. Instead of protecting the weak, they use their strength to subjugate the defenceless. You heard them! You're worthless in their eyes, nothing more than cattle. What makes them different? The ability to use magic? Take away their wands and they show you what they truly are. Nothing. But. A. Man. What say you to that?"

"Down with Reconquista!"

"Death to tyranny!"

"The oppressors must die!"

Saito didn't let it show on his face but he was elated on the inside. He was worried that the people had been oppressed for so long they had forgotten what it was like to be free from fear, that they wouldn't know how to seize their freedom once it was offered.

The chants spreading through the crowd like wildfire was proof that his worries were for naught. The seeds of the rebellion had been sowed and now it was time to cultivate it. On Earth, NOD had been birthed in similar circumstances, when the people could not take the abuse heaped on them, their outpouring of rage and grief had given rise to the brotherhood.

Saito wasn't Kane, he wasn't some grand visionary like the prophet was, but he did know that he would not allow injustice to stand. He fought for years in one world to ensure that no one would ever have to go through what he did, he'd be damned before he allowed the past to repeat in a new one.

A darker side of him whispered that this display solved his issue with Westwood village. Camlann was far enough away from Westwood that Reconquista reinforcements would not pass by Westwood and chances of discovery by dragon knights would go down with their attention focused here. How very like GDI, throw the many under the bus to save the privileged few.

Saito crushed that thought with extreme prejudice. He was not GDI, he would not abandon these people to their fate. No, Camlann would be the village of the beginning, he would not allow it to fall to Reconquista.

A plan began to form in his mind. His infantry production was a drain on resources largely due to the fact that creating a new cyborg soldier with robotics and cloned tissue was an expensive operation. Mass production of guns however, was simple enough. Provided they weren't anything fancy like particle beams or man portable flamethrowers of course.

Yes. He could see it now. he could have this village supplied with enough weapons and ammo to arm half the village and with a crash course on how to use these weapons, they should be able to hold off Reconquista.

Hopefully, the enemy wouldn't strike in force until his own troops in Westwood were ready, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

Saito held out the baron to the crowd and asked a simple question. "Well? what should I do with him?"

"""KILL!"""

The crowd's unified roar was deafening and truly a sight to behold. Saito merely nodded and drew his pistol again. Thumbing the safety off, he placed the gun and the sobbing noble's head.

"SIC SEMPER EVELLO MORTEM TYRANNIS! THUS ALWAYS I BRING DEATH TO TYRANTS!" Roaring his defiance to the heavens, in that one instance, Saito relieved every single battle and tragedy that forged him into the man he was today. Fighting back hot tears, he pulled the trigger.

The gunshot rang out and the crowd went wild.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 4: Professional negotiator

Osmond rubbed his red cheek and sighed as his secretary stormed out the door, in his other hand, he held his familiar Motsognir. The small mouse had been caught on his vital mission and had been promptly squished flat by the irate woman before he could secure the data.

In hindsight, mentioning that she would probably become and old maid if she didn't change her attitude was a bad idea as the slap proved.

"Don't worry my dear Motsognir, we'll get her next time."

Soft apologetic squeaking was the only response from his familiar.

The headmaster grumbled as he returned his attention to the never-ending pile of paperwork on his desk. He swore on his soul that every time he looked away the stack would start growing. Cursing the former headmaster for dumping the role on him and himself for being gullible enough to accept it, he had a good understanding of why his predecessor had stripped off his robes and went running out of the academy screaming he was free immediately after the handover had been completed.

"Become the headmaster he said, it'll be easy he said. Haaa… well what do we have here anyway? Let's see, more requests for the removal of Valliere's familiar from the campus, more requests to hire the familiar as a guard, oh? A request from the Gramonts to have him as a tutor for Guiche de Gramont? Heh, someone's sure getting popular nowadays."

Osmond sorted through the pile, most of them going into the reject bin. A few would be sent on to the royal palace, mainly those by nobles who thought because of their clout they could have the school brush up the grades of their children.

'Arrogant fools, this academy is the most prestigious institution in all of Tristain, we answer only to the crown. I'm sure her highness will be most interested in these idiots trying to abuse their power.'

That left three letters on his desk, one was a warning about the phantom thief Fouquet the crumbling dirt who might be targeting the school's vault, another was about the princess herself coming down in person to visit and the last was a notification that count Mott would be dropping by to assess the school's security.

That last one left a bitter taste in his mouth. Osmond would be the first to admit that he was a super pervert but he prided himself of having lines he would never even approach, let alone cross. Mott on the other hand had no such morals.

There wasn't a single underhanded technique that he would not use to get what he wanted and with his rank as a count and position of the palatial messenger, there was very little he could not do.

It was an open secret that he actively abused his servants, among their numbers were several of the former school staff that Osmond was unable to prevent him from 'collecting'. Sadly, there was nothing he could do in the matter, Mott was too clean to touch and his abuses were written off as disciplining unruly staff members.

He'd have to make a note to instruct all female serving staff to remain in their rooms for the duration of that despicable man's visit, the males who had to work overtime to cover for the shortfall would be compensated of course.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."

-line break

"Put your backs into it! Only one more lap to go!" Saito cheerfully encouraged his three victi-students while running alongside them on their fifth lap around the school compound.

"Stupid… sadistic… familiar… making… everything… look… easy."

"Quiet down! You want him to add another lap!?"

"I'm gonna die. Ah… I see a bright light…"

"Ahh? No! Malicorne! Don't go into the light!"

Saito was mildly surprised by his disciples' determination to keep going. Louise was a given since there was no way in hell her pride would allow her to quit.

Guiche had begged him to take him under his wing and he'd consented if only to give Louise someone to train alongside with, as with Louise, Guiche refused to give in and took everything Saito threw at him head on.

The real curveball was Malicorne however, the overweight noble just popped up one day and started training with them to give his buddy Guiche some moral support.

Saito had written him off as an unfit noble who'd never done anything more stressful than walk around in search of his next meal. He fully expected the boy to just drop out once the training truly got underway.

To his great surprise, Malicorne never did drop out, sure he whined at the exertion but dutifully completed every exercise given and that earned him a modicum of respect from the general. They'd been at it for two weeks now and already the trio were showing signs of improvement.

Excess fat was giving way to muscle and their performance was improving on all fronts. Both Guiche and Malicorne had advanced to becoming line mages, Louise still had issues with casting spells but she could now manage simple ones without mimicking ground zero of an air strike.

On the note of her explosions however, Saito had forbidden her from ever aiming one of them at another person unless it was a life and death situation.

After a particularly powerful one created a new lake on the outskirts of the school, Saito had grabbed the pinkie and ran like a bat out of hell before swearing the girl to silence on the matter. She was a full-fledged artillery mage now and it was best to keep things on the downlow to avoid anyone from getting the idea to use her as a weapon.

There were enough human weapons running around thank you very much.

As they finished their last lap, Malicorne collapsed on the ground in exhaustion and the other two sank to their knees.

"Good work! That's five laps completed and you lot could only do three last week. Mighty fine improvement." Saito honestly complimented them.

"D-did… you… have to… push us so… hard!?" Louise stared at her familiar with murder in her eyes.

"Of course I did. Sure you'd still be doing good if I didn't push you hard. But good isn't good enough! A wise man once told me the enemy of great is good, if you're satisfied with being good then you'll never be great. You've already made the decision to not be mediocre, why settle for less than perfect?"

"Oh… I hurt in places I didn't even know existed." Guiche moaned before picking his exhausted self off the ground to do his cooldowns.

"Here! I have some juice for everyone!" Siesta handed out three glasses to the nobles who accepted them with much gratitude. The maid popped up from time to time when her schedule permitted it at Saito's request. Her job mostly involved handing out refreshments to the victi-students.

Initially, she had been wary of doing so especially since Guiche was there but Saito was around and that offset some of her misgivings. The request was simple enough, drop by once they were done with some refreshments and maybe a snack.

Over the two weeks, she'd come to know the three nobles better and while they weren't what you'd call friends yet, it was something approaching that.

"Well, that concludes the physical training. I'll meet you all in your homeroom for the theory lesson in two hours. Today we'll be covering the topic of fighting against an enemy with air superiority on both the individual and army level. Enjoy your break."

Three sighs of relief reached his ears as the nobles heard that he wasn't going to add on some last-minute torture just to mess with them.

"Anyways, Siesta, about the contract…"

"Ah yes, I've settled everything on my end, all that's left is to inform the headmaster and finalise the paperwork."

"Good, good. While I'm your new employer, most of your duties will still be to look after my partner, she's making progress but she's not quite ready to look after herself yet. And for the love of all that is holy, make sure she never steps foot in a kitchen."

"It can't be that bad."

"I've had the misfortune of seeing her cook twice, the first time she created an industrial grade corrosive that melted a hole in the floor. The second time, she spawned some eldritch abomination that I had to save her from. Damn thing nearly beat me."

Saito was distracted by giggling coming from the maid and huffed in annoyance. "Oh sure, don't believe me. Just don't blame me if something she cooks eats you before I can rescue you."

-line break

"Hoh? Your request is unusual to say the least, a servant's contract is usually bought by a noble… this is the first time a commoner has requested to purchase one I think." Osmond sipped his tea as he studied the familiar and maid standing before him.

"Partner isn't quite ready to stand on her own yet, and since I'm a man there are some things I cannot do for her. Siesta's assistance is needed in this area. If its about the money… well I have the money."

Familiar and headmaster shared a knowing grin as the weight of their coin pouches served as a reminder of their very lucrative partnership.

"Well, then there's no reason for me not to agree. You wouldn't mind if I request tea from her would you? For some reason, she's the best at brewing tea in the whole school and well… it is one of the few perks about this job." Osmond grimaced in distaste as he stared at his paperwork which had somehow doubled in the few seconds he hadn't been looking.

"My condolences. As long as it doesn't conflict with her duties and she doesn't mind herself, I have no objections. Siesta?"

"I'm alright with it."

"Then it's settled?"

Osmond nodded and stamped a few sheets of paper before handing it over to the familiar. "It is, here you go, don't lose those now, they're proof that she has a contract with you. Pleasure doing business with you… again."

Another knowing smile passed between the two.

"Well, now that that's settled, I do have a few questions, you mind going into detail about your training sessions with Valliere and her classmates? Their rapid improvement has been noted by their teachers and I have been getting questions about that. I don't want any allegations of cheating you understand."

"Nothing to it really, magic here is powered by what was it… willpower?"

Upon receiving a nod from the headmaster, Saito continued with his explanation. "All I'm doing is improving their fitness and by pushing them to their limits, increasing their mental fortitude. Way I see it, magic is an exercise of the mind will a focus on the strength of their will instead of just knowledge. I'm not quite sure if I'm right but given the results it's a safe bet that there is at least some relation. If nothing else, they can't go wrong by being tougher."

"That is an… interesting way of looking at it. Most nobles don't put themselves through that kind of training unless they plan to enlist, and even then, never to this magnitude. Are you sure you won't reconsider my offer to be a teacher?"

"Sorry, I answer only to Louise and maybe the crown. Besides, me being a teacher will only end in tears once my students realise I ain't gonna cut anyone any slack on account of their nobility. If they wish to train with me, they're free to drop by but I won't be reducing the difficulty for them, wouldn't be fair to Louise and the others if I did so."

Saito gave a small smile as Osmond grumbled. "Very well, I concede your point. Heh, you've been here less than a month and the status quo is being shaken to pieces, as expected of the ganda… no never mind."

Saito caught that slip and was about to press for more info when the door slammed open. In walked an obese man dressed in fancy robes that barely contained his girth. Clearly a noble, he barged past Saito without even a glance and addressed the headmaster.

"I've completed my inspection of the vault, it's just a small room made out of bricks. Certainly fails to impress, are you sure its sufficient to protect the valuables inside? I hear Fouquet is targeting the school. It would be a serious issue if the staff of destruction was stolen."

Saito stepped back and motioned for Siesta to do the same as Osmond spoke up to the new arrival. "I assure you count, the vault's defences are more than capable of protecting its contents."

"Are you sure? It looked pretty weak to me, the royal palace would be a far safer place to store the staff."

Osmond remained outwardly unfazed but on the inside he was questioning just what Mott was up to. "I assure you the defences are unmatched, it is the most secure room in all of Tristain. When the school was built, the reigning king had the vault enchanted to the same degree of defence as the palace vault. And since then, it has been a tradition for every teacher and headmaster to add at least a layer of defence over the existing ones upon retirement. I myself have added six layers to them, it _is_ the most secure room in all of Tristain."

"Are you sure? It would look very bad on the school's part if it was breached."

Osmond wanted to sigh, Mott was seriously trying his patience. His existence alone was revolting enough, to have him questioning his work and trying to push his agenda was the icing on the cake.

Unholy killing intent surged out of the normally genial old man, all of it directed at the count. Mott lost his composure and a wet stain spread across his breeches.

"I assure you. The staff is well defended. It would take an army or a void mage to breach all the defences, neither of which Fouquet has. Are. You. Questioning. My. Work. Boy?"

"N-no! O-of course not! If… if you're sure th-then I'll report it back to her highness. I-I'm sure she'll be pleased."

"Excellent." The surge of killing intent vanished as though it never existed and Osmond smiled kindly at the palatial messenger.

"Then your work here is done I think? If you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do so I won't show you out. I trust you remember the way to the exit?"

"I… I… yes! Yes of course. I'll be leaving now headmaster, t-the crown thanks you for your hard work." Receiving a non-committal grunt in response, Mott turned and made for the exit with as much dignity as he could muster.

The day was not going as he'd intended. First, he had to leave the comfort of his home to come here, then all the female staff in the school had mysteriously disappeared and now his efforts to have the staff of destruction relocated had failed miserably.

On his way out, his attention was drawn to a black-haired maid standing in the corner. 'Well, maybe the day isn't a complete bust after all.'

A lascivious smile disfigured his face further and he made no secret of his intentions. "Maid. You will attend to me. Come."

"No."

"Excuse me!?" Mott stopped in his tracks and turned back to the other commoner in the room he'd ignored, a random insect had dared to oppose him?

"I said no. She has her own duties to fulfil and has no time to tend to you."

The count raged inside his mind but refrained from pulling out his wand. Even if it was to discipline an upstart commoner, he got the feeling that the headmaster would not take to kindly to his office being damaged and there was no way in hell he was going to piss off the old man. Legend had it that the last moron who tried being funny was blasted into so many tiny pieces that they had to bury what little they could recover of him in shoebox.

"Hmmph is that so? That's fine, I'll just purchase her contract from the school."

"I'm afraid that's not possible count. The school no longer has her contract." Osmond spoke up at this point. Really, he could just order the count to leave now on the excuse of having business with the two, but… well, a gandalfr had appeared after so long, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested to see what Saito would do.

"It was purchased by that fine young man over there."

Saito gave a small nod as Count Mott's incredulous gaze turned to him. "A commoner purchased a contract? That's impossible."

"Not really, he had the money so I sold it to him. There isn't a law or rule against it and I should know, I checked."

"Hmmph, no matter, boy, I order you to hand over the contract at once."

"No."

"You… You dare defy me!?"

"You have no authority over me."

"I am a count! I am the palatial messenger! I demand that you obey."

His anger only increased as Saito snorted disrespectfully. "I, don't have to. One, I'm not a citizen of Tristain. Two, I answer only to my contractor, _Duke_ Valliere's youngest daughter and to the princess herself since she outranks my employer. You are nothing more than a glorified messenger."

Mott was frothing at the mouth at the blatant show of disrespect. Face curling into an ugly snarl, he reached into his pocket for his wand only to stop and stare at the point of Saito's sword in shock.

"Oooh… partner, I know I said I wanted to be used but I'm a weapon of war damn it. Don't go using me as a butcher's knife, I don't want to be used for slaughtering pigs! I deserve better than that!"

"Sorry Derf, but piggy here is asking for it."

"A… A talking sword!"

"Bollocks, you could have waited for him to pull the wand out first you know, then if you cut him up it's self-defence. And can you put me away now? He stinks."

"You're a sword, how the heck can you even smell?"

"Hmm… you know, that's actually a good question."

Mott staggered backwards, too surprised by the fact that a random commoner had a magical talking sword and was now bantering with it of all things.

"Y-you! I won't forget this! This isn't-"

"Yeah, yeah, this isn't over, I'll regret this yada yada yada. Can you be anymore cliché? I think you might want to leave now. The headmaster is getting angry."

Mott turned to see the headmaster staring at him with narrowed eyes and paled considerably. The old man was tapping his wand on the desk abd his familiar was perched on his shoulders, looking far more menacing than a mouse had any right to… hang on, were its eyes always glowing red?

Mott gulped before slowly turning and making his way out of the room with shaky steps, trying not to show that the wet stain on his pants had grown in size again.

As the door slammed shut on his way out, the trio inside were left to their own thoughts.

Siesta was in awe of how Saito had stood up to the count, beating up students in 'duels' was one thing, directly opposing a full fledged noble with an important job was something else entirely.

The headmaster was half impressed with the familiar and half worried that he might have made a powerful enemy and bring trouble down on himself in the future.

As for the star of the show himself, Saito sheathed his blade and made a note to ready for further aggressive negotiations in the future. He'd met people like Mott in the past and most of them usually gave him an excuse to have a more _private_ discussion in the not too distant future.

"You certainly do know how to make life interesting Mr Saito. I do hope you know what you're doing though, count Mott has friends in high places and can make your life… difficult."

Saito shrugged as the headmaster's voice drew him from his memories. "I've dealt with people like him in the past. You can relax though, I've memorised most of Tristain's laws, there are enough options in them that the good count won't be a count for very much longer if he tries anything."

The two blank stares he received got a chuckle out of him.

"What? I got a lot of free time when partner's in class ok? Just thought knowing the laws of the land I'm in was a good idea."

"Just… just don't bite off more than you can chew yes?"

"Relax headmaster, if nothing else, I am a professional negotiator, everything is under control."

-line break

The twin moons hung overhead, their light providing just enough illumination for Saito to pick his out his people of interests. A single glowing marker hung over one of them as the tracker fed information directly to his heads-up display.

"Munyaa… hmm…? Saito… why are you not asleep?" Louise rubbed her eyes groggily as Saito gently nudged her awake.

"Just thought I'd let you know that I'm stepping out for a bit."

"Hmm… where are you going?"

"To pay dear old count Mott a visit."

"Ok…" Louise blinked as the words finally processed. "YOU'RE GOING WHERE!?"

"I did tell you the good count would never take failing to get Siesta lying down. She's being kidnapped as we speak."

"WHAT!?"

"Relax, I have everything under control. Just a few questions though, you're the third daughter of a duke no?"

"Yes…?" Louise answered and stared at Saito suspiciously, she didn't know where he was going with this but a headache was coming on.

"That means the title of duke will be inherited by one of your older sisters no?"

"Yes…?"

"Right! How would you like to be a count?"

"…What exactly are you planning to do?"

Saito sniggered before pulling out a stack of papers. "These here are the employment papers for Siesta, and I had a loophole built into the contract. Mainly, I hired her in the capacity of Hiraga Saito the familiar and not Hiraga Saito the person."

"…I don't get it."

"It's quite simple, familiars have no rights. According to the law, they are nothing more than an extension of their master, in this case that's you. Any action taken by them will be seen as the action of their master. Legally, you are Siesta's employer… and the overweight idiot just had your personal attendant kidnapped for slavery. Pretty damning stuff."

"That's… wow."

"But wait, there's more! See right now, there are two options available to you. The first and most obvious one, call the cops on his ass. That gets him arrested and stripped of his nobility, Siesta is rescued and we all ride off into the sunset. But we're not going to do that."

Saito clasped his hands together and began let loose evil laughter worthy of the finest evil overlords in existence. "There's a law that dates back about 150 years give or take a bit, it covers conflicts between nobles. Whenever one does something that constitutes a grievous insult against the other, the offended party has the right to issue a challenge for a grudge match that cannot be refused."

"Oooh… carry on…" The Valliere was wide awake now, this reeked of being another one of Saito's completely insane plans that had a tendency to work out in the end. Count Mott was a familiar name to her, being one of the prime examples of everything that was wrong with the nobility. If her familiar had a plan to put him in his place she was all for it, maybe it would even gain some points in her mother's eye for upholding the rule of steel.

"Rules are simple, once challenge has been issued, neither party can back down from it and anything goes during the duel. Winner takes all. Titles, land, money everything the loser owns becomes property of the victor. It's partly the reason why that rule fell out of use since it is very, very final. I'll be standing in as your champion of course and you'll be a count by sunrise."

"And what if you lose?"

"Ahahahaha! That's the beauty of it! Even if I do by some act of god lose, nothing will happen… except maybe I get a few broken bones for my efforts, nothing serious. See, even if he wins, it doesn't change the fact that he did break the law, so he'll still be going to prison no matter what happens. Am I good, or am I good."

Louise whistled softly as she appreciated the genius behind the plan. "And just how long have you been planning something like this?"

"Ever since I came across it while studying the law, granted I was not expecting it to come into play so quickly. If I hadn't pushed buying her contract through then this might be a little more complicated. Well, luck or providence it doesn't matter, negotiations with the count have been going smoothly, now I just need to seal the deal."

"You call _this_ negotiations?"

"But of course, the best kind of negotiating is the one where you achieve your goal without the other party even realising that you've done so. Now I move on to the next bit, aggressive negotiations." Having said his piece, Saito leapt out down from the balcony and sprinted off into the night.

-line break

Siesta shuddered in a mix of revulsion and fright as Count Mott approached her. One moment she'd been doing the laundry the next some thugs had thrown a bag over her head and kidnapped her.

She didn't know how long she'd been left with the hood on but when it was taken off, she sorely wished they hadn't. Count Mott in his night clothes was the stuff of nightmares and she resisted the urge to throw up on the spot.

Mott himself was feeling pretty good, being back in his manor reminded himself of his station and his right to enjoy the finer things in life.

His hired muscle stood at the foot of the stairs in his entry hall, the maid that caught his eye earlier in the day being held between them.

Right as he opened his mouth to give a grandiose speech about how it was her honour to serve one as great as he, the doors were blown down in a blast of ungodly sound.

The upstart commoner from before stepped through while whistling a jaunty tune and spinning his sword at the end of a string. The carefree "Yo!" thrown his way only served to increase his ire.

"YOU! How dare you invade MY HOME! Guards! Arrest that man! Arrest him!"

"Me Saito says arrest him."

Siesta and the two thugs could easily see what the count couldn't from his angle, behind the broken doors lay a trail of bodies groaning on the floor. Kidnapping a maid sure, fighting against someone who just beat up every guard in his way without even slowing down… not so much.

"Come along Siesta, you have work to do back at the academy."

"She is going nowhere brat. She belongs to me now and I will enjoy making her scream my name."

"Belongs to you eh? Do tell, where are her employment papers?"

"Hmmph! As if I need any of that! By my authority as a count, she belongs to me. Your papers are worthless scrap. Where are the blasted guards?"

Saito nodded along to the count's words before drawing a dagger imprinted with the Valliere insignia and tossing it into the ground hard enough to embed it in the polished marble. "So you did kidnap her as my master thought. Count Mott, on account of your kidnapping of Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière's most trusted confidant, you have been declared anathema and challenged to a grudge match. The duel will take place here and now, as her familiar, I will be acting as her champion. You may choose to face me yourself or send a champion of your own."

The sound of metal clanking on stone drew their attention and a blonde lady knight in full armour came marching through the shattered doorway, cape billowing out behind her. Several similarly armoured knights followed behind her.

"What's going on here? We're her majesty's royal guard and we received reports of a disturbance in the area."

'Unexpected but not unwelcome. Good to have witnesses.' Saito mused as he analysed the newcomers and held his sword in a non-threatening manner. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mott mouthing 'filthy plebeians' and filed that away for future reference.

"Ah chevalier Agnes, how _nice_ to see you again. This commoner barged into my home unannounced and threatened me, make yourself useful and remove him from the premises. Founder knows your little group of _knights_ aren't good for much else."

To her credit, Agnes let the insult slide off with little more than a small frown, remaining professional despite the unpleasant man. "Is that so. Fine, young man, I will have to ask you to leave."

Saito shook his head and stood his ground. "That's not happening. I am well within my legal rights to be here. I am here as the familiar of a noble, one that has been grievously insulted by Count Mott. She is the third daughter of the Valliere family and has issued a challenge for a grudge match to be held here and now. If it is possible, I would like you and your knights to remain here as witnesses of the duel."

"A grudge match?" Agnes whistled appreciatively. "That hasn't been done in nearly three decades."

"I was unaware of that. This man kidnapped the maid Siesta who happens to be a close friend and confidant of my master just hours after she purchased her contract. Such an insult cannot be allowed to stand, and my master will have satisfaction."

"Lies! I did nothing of the sort. And your _master_ purchased nothing! It was… it was…"

Saito rolled up his sleeves and displayed the familiar runes on his left hand. "As you can see, I am a familiar. I am merely the extension of my master's will, she was indisposed in the afternoon so I settled the paperwork in her place. The maid's contract papers remain with her even now, if you insist on further slandering my master, I insist that you show proof of your ownership of her contract."

Mott was screwed and he knew it. And so he did what all cowards do, run away and hide. "I have no time for this nonsense. I'm leaving."

"So you forfeit the match then count? If you do so, everything you own including your title of count will be transferred to the familiar's master." Agnes spoke up to put the final nail in Mott's coffin.

"WHAT!?"

"A grudge match cannot be turned down. If you leave, it will count as forfeiting and you lose everything. Of course, you will be coming with us to assist in investigations into the charge of kidnapping."

"Y-you can't do that! I am the palatial messenger! I… I order you to remove that commoner from my presence."

"This is an issue between the daughter of the Vallieres and you, as agents of the crown, we cannot and will not interfere… unless you forfeit in which case we will remove you since you no longer own the mansion. It is the law and not even you are exempt."

"You… I… gragghhh! Fine! All I have to do is crush that upstart yes? Tch, a waste of my time but if you have a death commoner allow me to grant it. I am Count Mott of the Wave and a triangle class mage. Enjoy your last breaths before I drown you."

Drawing his wand, the tension in the place skyrocketed, the knights, thugs and Siesta retreated to the edges of the room to avoid interfering with the duel. The two thugs also took the opportunity to make themselves scarce before anyone could think to arrest them.

"Yo Derf! You want a piece of the action or no?"

"Please, not against that pig. Call me when you got someone actually worth fighting, I'm going back to sleep." The talking sword responding grouchily.

"Suit yourself." Saito slipped on one of his dusters and drew his sidearm in the other.

Mott attacked without warning and sent three ice spikes shooting towards Saito. Dropping to the floor in a crouch, the spikes sailed harmlessly overhead and buried themselves in the wall.

Launching forwards, Saito bobbed and weaved through the oncoming barrage of ice spikes, water balls and water whips to close the distance.

He grunted in surprise when a spray of water that landed on his right arm started to freeze immediately courtesy of Mott's magic. The ice itself wasn't debilitating since his jacket insulated him from the cold but the movement of his arm being hampered was annoying.

Smashing the thin layer of ice with his duster, Saito ducked under a spinning ice blade and readied himself for an opening in Mott's defences.

The count had surrounded himself with six rings of high pressure water, all rotating around himself at high speed, a more advanced form of a spell one of the nobles he'd beaten a while back.

And just like that noble, it had a single crippling weakness, those spinning rings could deflect or weaken most attacks in theory but the main drawback to the spell was that it was impossible to manually control the rotation.

Control itself was left up to the spell and the rings followed a set pattern, one that would open up a single weak point every so many cycles. The opening was too small for anything short of a gun or a continuous stream to take advantage of and most people wouldn't be able to even see that opening let alone capitalise on it.

But Saito wasn't most people, his augmentations courtesy of ZOCOM back in the days of fighting in the red zones coupled with the boost from whatever magic was in his familiar runes improved his perception to the point the world looked like it was going by in slow motion.

A split-second opening?

All the time in the world.

Saito exhaled and snapped his sidearm up, firing as soon as the window opened. Time slowed to a crawl as the bullet exited the barrel and bypassed every layer of defence the count had thrown up.

The wand in Mott's hands vanished in a shower of splinters as the wand disintegrated on bullet impact.

"Gah!" The count loss his concentration as he cradled the now wandless hand in the other, his revolving shield crumbled instantly and formed a large puddle on the floor.

"That's impossible! There's no way you could have bypassed my defences. This cannot be!" Mott screamed in defiance as Saito picked his way across the lingering ice spikes and rubble to get to him.

"Oi! Chevalier! Arrest him! He attacked a noble! Arrest him!"

Agnes shook her head and without her approval, none of the other musketeers moved either. "This is a grudge match, we cannot and will not interfere."

"What!? I… I yield! I yield! Stop him!"

"That's not how grudge matches work arrogant fool. Once the duel has commenced, it only ends when the victor says it ends. As long as you don't die, I have carte blanche to do as I please."

Saito's grin was positively sinister at this point as he approached the pathetic man. "I happen to have friends among the serving staff at the academy, they told me quite a lot about how you like to 'break' those under you. So now, I break you."

"Stop! I…I'm ordering you to stop! A-are you listening!? STOP!"

"Don't worry. I won't kill you." The enraged general holstered his sidearm and slipped on the other pair of dusters.

"I'm just going to hurt you, really, really, bad."

The first blow sent teeth flying. The second brought the count to his knees. The third broke four ribs. The fourth darkened one eye permanently.

With every blow Saito landed, his mind wandered back into his past. Repressed anger surged to the forefront as Mott's face was replaced by the one man he hated almost as much as Kane.

Obsolete water filtration system at risk of imminent failure, tiberium corrosion 39%, funds requested for emergency repairs, estimated budget 2.3 million.

Denied.

"They don't matter, GDI's responsibility is to our constituents. We are not here to waste precious funds on backwater peoples, that money will be put to better use funding promotional efforts in the blue zones, we need to keep the people's trust!"

Filtration system complete failure. Tiberium contamination, total. Estimated casualties, 72,000 affected 8000 dead. Death toll expected to climb.

They don't matter.

ZOCOM operations in central Australia in danger of total collapse. Brotherhood forces entrenched in area. Allied forces outnumbered 8 to 1. Reinforcements requested from Sydney.

Denied.

"They're ZOCOM, best of the best! They can handle themselves. We're moving a large amount of gold bullion from here to the GDI treasury and we're behind schedule as it is. We need to guard the gold lest NOD gets any funny ideas. Don't worry commander, I'll be meeting the rest of GDI high command on the Philadelphia, I'll be sure to pass along your request, but for now they don't matter."

ZOCOM losses 87%, NOD forces too deeply dug in to be rooted out. Tiberium containment efforts complete failure. Future reclamation efforts non-viable.

They don't matter.

Deep scans show possible liquid tiberium deposits beneath Temple Prime. Recommend extreme caution during operation. Risk of chain reaction with use of ion cannon judged to be high. Request for ASAT defences to be struck from available options.

Denied.

"No general, I'm not suggesting it. I'm ordering it. General, this is a NOD controlled yellow zone. Whatever the repercussions of the ion strike may be, my concerns are not for the locals of this region, my concerns are for our public! The GDI populace who have been promised payback for the Philadelphia."

GDI losses in Sarajevo 100%. Deadly fallout and radiation across eastern Europe. Estimated civilian death toll in the millions. Tiberium infestation increased to unsustainable levels, most of Sarajevo red zoned.

They don't matter.

Scrin invasion begins. Millions dead. Liquid tiberium bomb built from data salvaged from Temple Prime. Orders to use it passed down. Estimated resulting death toll, 25 million and unchecked spread of the tiberium scourge.

They don't matter.

Saito sucked in a deep breath and slowly lowered his still raised fist. It was wet with blood. Slowly, the face of Redmond Boyle he'd been pounding was replaced with the broken form of Count Mott. Every bone in his arms had been broken from trying to ward of the hammer like blows and his face was a complete mess of swelling and blood.

With an act of supreme will, he forced his left fist to unclench, releasing the count's shirt and allowing the body to drop unceremoniously.

As the general brought his breathing under control and stepped back, he angrily berated himself for losing control like that.

'Damnit, lost control. So, the calming effect from the runes does have a limit after all.' Saito's body shuddered as he exhaled.

'Breathe in, count to four, exhale. Breathe in, count to four, exhale.' Slowly but surely, he regained full control over his own emotions. Turning away from the fallen noble, he approached the chevalier standing by Siesta.

"It's done. Can I trouble you to see that he gets medical attention? I'm sorry for the hassle."

Agnes nodded and motioned for two of her musketeers to see that Mott didn't expire from the one-sided beating before favouring Saito with a questioning glance. "A lot of anger in that beating. Looked a little personal to me, you sure this is about avenging the honour of your 'master'?"

"I am here on behalf of my master. He just happens to remind of someone from my past."

"I'm not going to tell you to throw away your hate. God knows I of all people don't have the right to do so." Agnes nodded understandingly even as a dark look flickered across her face.

"Just see that you don't go around attacking people because they happen to look like someone you know. I'd rather not have to arrest you. Did… did you ever settle the score with that person?"

"No." Saito shook his head and a broken smile crossed his face. "Someone else beat me to him."

"I see. The past is gone, hypocritical as it is coming from me, do try to move forwards. May you find peace in the founder's embrace." Agnes gave a short bow towards Saito before turning and marching out, the remaining musketeers falling in step behind her.

"Ano… are you alright Saito?" Siesta piped up from the side once they were the only two remaining in the destroyed hall.

"No. But I will be. Quite an eventful night I'll say. Pick a room and get some rest. Sun's rising in a bit and it's a long day ahead. I wish to be alone for now."

"Al-alright… um… have a good night Saito." The maid bowed and left after seeing a noncommittal nod.

And so, the general was left standing alone amidst the ruins of his own design, reflecting on old regrets and laying plans for the future.

* * *

Author's notes: It won't die! The plot bunny won't die! I've been writing this through finals week and here's hoping my gpa doesn't crash and burn. If anyone's curious, I see GDI and NOD as two sides of the same coin, both are right on some points and hopelessly wrong on others. Corruption exists in both organisations and neither side can admit that they're wrong. The two Saito's should be reflections of that, both are incredibly similar but they differ on several points. ZOCOM Saito is by the book who believes in exploiting all the loopholes. MOK Saito plays by his own rules since he believes enough people toss out the book that it doesn't really apply anymore. Both men are products of their environments and have developed their ideals accordingly. On a side note, cookies for everyone who manages to pick out the references in the chapter


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 5: Stranger in a familiar land

The inquisitor stood atop a rocky hill overlooking the plains below. Known as the field of gold, it was a grassy expanse that turned gold when catching the suns rays at dawn and evening. Militiamen from Camlann were scattered around the place inside foxholes, carefully camouflaged from prying eyes.

Glancing at his pocket watch, he noted that it was about time for the Reconquista 'ambassadors' to show up. Sure enough, he could see a few black specks in the morning sky steadily growing larger.

The uprising was coming along smoothly, as it turned out, dragon knights were bullet resistant, not bulletproof. Shoot em with enough bullets and they'll go down like anything else.

After Baron Dreyar's untimely demise, it had taken the Reconquista forces a further six days to realise that he wasn't returning and something had gone awry. In the reprieve he had been graced with, Saito had been able to set up a supply line of weapons and supplies to the village through judicious use of his awakened's inability to tire and carry loads that would break a normal man.

Those able and willing to fight had been put through a crash course on them and basic squad tactics. They weren't anything close to a professional army but it would have to do. Back home, most of NOD were made up of men like these anyway, discounting the black hand and his own Marked of Kane, militia born from the disaffected who refused to put up with GDI's tyranny and incompetence were the backbone of their army.

By the time Reconquista had marshalled a second squad of knights to check up on the situation, they found themselves face to face with a village full of semi-competent militiamen armed with guns far surpassing anything the rest of the world had.

Negotiations had broken down almost immediately when the knights demanded an explanation for the baron's disappearance and then the heads of the ones responsible upon learning of his execution.

Saito had noted that the technological level on Halkeginia was about the same 17th century earth discounting the use of magic. Firearms at this point were novelty items really, the only way they would pose a threat was if their wielder was a marksman or they were arranged in a massed firing line. Even then the terrible accuracy of the damn things and their slow reload times made for terrible weapons against a mage. If both missed on their first shot, chances were that it would be the mage who would get the second spell off first.

Reconquista's agents knew of this and had already discounted the militiamen arrayed against them. One of the nobles had the brilliant idea of threatening to burn the villagers alive when they refused to meet their demands, summoning a ball of flames as he did so, immediately qualifying for a Darwin award.

Whatever assurances they received from Saito, it was hard to overcome a fear of magic beaten into them since birth. The nearest militiaman panicked and squeezed down on his trigger. The others followed suit immediately and the knights went down in a hail of AP ammo.

Unbeknownst to Saito and the villagers, a single Reconquista scout had been in the area and bore witness to the massacre. His report had made it back to Midgand fortress and a single messenger showed up two days later.

Coming under a white flag, the soldier indicated that his superiors at the Midgand garrison were aware of Camlann's actions and were convinced that it was some kind of terrible misunderstanding.

The messenger was quick to assure Saito that Reconquista wasn't an enemy of the people, they were here to save them from the true oppression of King James. To avoid any further unnecessary bloodshed, Reconquista was requesting a meeting at the field of gold to 'parley'. Just a simple face to face meeting where they could settle their differences peacefully.

The inquisitor had snorted upon hearing that and would have shot the messenger if Charles hadn't intervened and convinced him that shooting someone coming under the banner of a truce wouldn't do much for the legitimacy of their movement.

Saito grumbled but acquiesced in the end and agreed to meet Reconquista at the appointed time, in three days at dawn in the centre of the field.

He knew how this would end, with the field of gold becoming the field of red, god willing, it would be Reconquista blood staining the fields on not the villagers.

An age-old tactic, offer an olive branch and request a meeting to settle things peacefully. They come with open arms, you come with loaded guns. Negotiations, peace talks, inspections… all viable means to exterminate your enemies in one fell swoop.

Charles had been vehemently against preparing an ambush for the ambassadors, it was dishonourable and would scuttle any chance of peace. Parley was done as equals, one does not simply parley with the intention of slaughtering the other like animals.

"I am well aware of that, but you see, we're not equals. Reconquista has proved time and again that they see commoners as nothing more than animals to be stepped on. You parley with an equal, you do not parley with a rabid beast, and to them, that's all we are. Mark my words royalist, when we meet we'll be lucky to get an ultimatum from them before they start attacking."

Saito snapped his pocket watch shut and stowed it inside his jacket and proceeded to make his way towards the designated meeting point.

His eyes picked out four figures on dragonback approaching, the numbers were smaller than he expected but… wait… there it was. There was a small distortion in the clouds as something pushed through it.

There was nothing in the sky aside from the ambassadors and it could have easily been a rouge gust of wind but he'd been a NOD commander for long enough to recognise the tell-tale signs of a stealthed vertigo approaching when it cut through the cloud cover.

Whatever was hidden was far larger than a vertigo and far slower if the rate of displacement was anything to go by. 'Must be one of those airships I keep hearing about. So they do have stealth tech… or magic at least.'

Keying the comms, he broadcast a message to the squad leaders that he had been able to outfit with radios. "Attention militiamen, Reconquista ambassadors will arrive shortly. I count four dragon knights and I want all gunners to keep them in your sights once they land. Rocket squads, keep your eyes on the clouds, there appears to be at least a single airship hiding in them currently hidden by magic. Watch for a distortion in the air and when it turns hostile, bring it down."

A chorus of acknowledgements reached his ears and Saito smiled to himself before continuing forwards at a sedate pace. Things were proceeding according to schedule, Reconquista had been given a bloody nose and they were out for blood.

Now he just had to beat back their little subjugation force to send a message that the uprising wasn't to be taken lightly. If he could capture and hold Midgand fortress itself… well, that would cement them as a new power in Albion.

Saito had a good feeling that if he managed that, recruits would start pouring in from nearby villages. After that… he'd cross that bridge when he got to it, no sense in planning too far ahead.

-line break

Saito stood alone facing off against four heavily armoured Reconquista nobles as the tall grass rustled in the wind. Plate armour covered every inch of their skin and a wind barrier was overlaid to further increase defence. The still invisible airship floated overhead, the only indication of its presence being a slight distortion in the air.

The lead noble dismounted and approached while the others remained where they were, wands clutched tightly in their fists.

"Are you the leader of this peasant uprising?"

"We don't have a formal leader per say but you can consider me a spokesman of sorts."

"I see. So you're the one responsible for the murders of our fellow Reconquista crusaders. Explain yourself."

"What's to explain? The first time, they tried to murder the innocent, I don't take kindly to that. The second they threatened _armed_ militiamen, their deaths were self-defence. Both times they brought it on themselves so I'd hardly call it murder."

"Insolent whelp! What you speak of is heresy! Under the law founder Brimir laid down, the commoners are to bow to the nobility! You do not raise a hand against your betters filthy mongrel, no matter what."

"Funny you should say that." Saito graced the knight with a sardonic smile.

"You see, I recall that your scripture has a clear hierarchy in place. Commoners obey the nobility who in turn obey the king… the same king you're trying to dethrone. Nice to meet you pot, I'm kettle."

The noble's response was to fire a wind blade that nicked Saito's cheek drawing blood. The inquisitor idly reached up to feel the wound while the noble started to rant.

"How dare you insinuate that our holy crusade is heresy! King James is a fool and unfit to lead. His refusal to do anything to reclaim the holy land from those accursed elves is treason! Reconquista's success is proof that he has lost the blessing of the founder and that we are his new chosen!"

Continuing to point his wand at Saito, he readied a more destructive spell to wipe the eyesore from the face of Albion. "You die here heretic."

"Really? You're just going to murder me like this? I thought violence was forbidden when parleying. This is supposed to be a negotiation." The inquisitor feigned outraged but still managed to deliver his lines in a complete monotone.

"Parley? Fool, you parley with equals, you do not parley with dogs who don't know when to die. Tis a shame that only you are here, no matter, we'll just torch the village to rid the world of the rest of you upstarts."

"How very predictable. But. I did come here to negotiate and negotiate I will. Ballistic diplomacy is my favourite kind after all." Saito grinned as he spread his arms out as though welcoming the knight into an embrace.

With the signal given, eighteen rockets took to the skies, all aimed at the distortion in the air. Quite a few of them went wide but the airship was struck by at least two thirds of volley. Explosions blossomed along the outline of the ship as the rockets breached the hull.

The invisibility cloak failed instantly as the damage disrupted the spell and the battleship appeared out of thin air. Black smoke billowed from where it'd been struck and the ship was starting to list.

With their massive target now in sight and still stationary, the rocket squads had an easy time lining up their shots. A second wave of green lights surged towards the doomed vessel and every rocket found their mark.

The battleship shuddered under the impact of the second volley and the inquisitor could just barely make out panicked crew members trying to run damage control before the entire thing fell to pieces from the damage.

However advanced Albion's airships were, they were still made out of wood. And wood tended to fair poorly against munitions designed to damage even the toughest armour GDI could field.

Whatever magic was keeping the flaming behemoth afloat finally failed and the wreckage sailed through the air, breaking apart as it went, scattering debris and body parts across the plains.

"The Belfast! No! You! What trickery is this!?" The noble screamed in panic as he waved his wand about, trying to find the source of the attack and firing off spells randomly.

Saito's forces were too well hidden in their foxholes and the tall grass just made hiding that much easier. The spells just went wide with no discernible impact save a few craters where they struck empty ground.

"In your own words, the uprising's success is proof that Reconquista has lost the blessing of the founder and that we the people are his new chosen!"

Taking advantage of the panic engulfing the four 'ambassadors', Saito issued his next order. "Gunners, you heard the man. Once they're done here Reconquista plans to burn Camlann to the ground. We will not let that happen. On my mark! Ready! Aim! NEGOTIATE!"

The staccato of gunfire that was the chorus of fifty rifles going off at full auto was a glorious sound and music to the inquisitor's ears.

Plate mail and wind barriers did nothing against the sheer firepower sent their way. Sure, it might have stopped the first few bullets but the other hundred plus rounds? Not a chance in hell.

The knights and their dragons came apart like wet tissue, one second they were there, the next just a chunky red mist marked their passing.

Once the last guns went silent, Saito addressed his men once more. "Excellent work gentlemen! You have proven your dedication to the defence of your home and family! But, this is only the beginning. We've give Reconquista a bloody nose and a black eye to go with it! Mark my words, they will retaliate. We've come too far to turn back now, your only options going forwards is to either run or fight. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I refuse to live under tyranny. I choose to fight! I will die before I'm made a slave! And I will continue fighting so that all of Albion may be free! WHO'S WITH ME!?"

The answering roar was almost as deafening as the gunfire.

Saito's grin grew larger.

-line break

"It's not done. Attacking someone during parley just isn't done!"

"They struck first royalist, I have the wound to prove it. Any chance of peace died with their first blow."

"I KNOW THAT!" Charles raged and slammed his fist down on his bar table, the three empty mugs next to him rattled from the blow.

"Is nothing sacred? Those rules were set even before the time of the founder and we've been upholding them for millennia now, they exist for a reason! If they're broken then no one will ever trust a request to parley again. To think the damned Reconquista would stoop so low." Charles ended in a whisper and chugged his fourth mug.

"Rules only work when all parties follow them and a sufficient punishment exists for those who step out of line. They fail when someone refuses to play by them and is immune to prosecution. Reconquista's actions are high treason, punishable by being hung, drawn and quartered. I highly doubt there are any other rules they're unwilling to break since they've already committed themselves."

The royalist spy glared at Saito with bloodshot eyes. "Maybe so. But that doesn't mean you should completely disregard the law like that. They exist for a reason damnit! You went there with the intention to kill them!"

"I did no such thing. I went there to negotiate and negotiate I did. They struck first and we responded in kind. If they had kept things civil, I wouldn't have given the order to fire. Their actions proved beyond a shadow of doubt that there will never be peace between us as long as one side still draws breath. For god's sake man, they see us as nothing more than animals! For the people to live… no for the people to thrive, they must be destroyed to the last man."

"So what? All nobles are evil then? you won't stop until the entire nobility has been exterminated? Alright! Fine! I admit it! King James hasn't been the best monarch and he has made mistakes… but who hasn't!? He's human damnit! We all are! I'm viscount Charles of York! Shoot me then!"

Saito shrugged and looked around the empty bar. Fortunately, none of the commoners had been around to hear that little outburst. "Now why would I do that? Have you oppressed the people? Are you going to become a despot and lord over everyone with your fancy magic?"

"NO! Of course not! How the hell can you even suggest that!?"

"Then why would I shoot you? Contrary to what you may believe, I have nothing against the nobility. My beef lies with those who abuse their power over others. Not all nobles are tyrants and not all tyrants are nobles."

"Yeah? Somehow, I don't think the commoners outside share your point of view. They'll kill every noble they get their hands on if they could and you've given them the means to do so."

"Can you blame them? Life dealt them a shit hand and now they're striking out. I'll do everything in my power to ensure the revolution remains civilised. Either way, the existing system is broken beyond repair and it _will_ be torn down so that a new one, a better one can take its place."

Charles snorted in derision and began fixing himself another drink. "And I suppose you'll be at the head of that new system? A new king to lord over the masses?"

"No. I am a general, my place is on the battlefield not in a throne room. Whether there'll even be a single fixed leader is still up for debate. I don't know what kind of government will be formed at the end of this, my only concern is with restoring liberty to the people. I will not be a part of that government in any case."

The viscount stared disbelievingly at the inquisitor. "Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe. You do all this and have no intention of taking over? I can read the writing on the wall, the royalists' days are numbered and it'll be a match between Reconquista and this revolution soon enough. And if you have anymore miracle weapons like those you're handing out like candy, Reconquista won't last either. With such accomplishments, the people will raise you to kinghood."

"And I will not accept. I have spent nearly my whole life fighting a tyrannical regime, I will not be part of the rise of another. Whatever new government is formed at the end of this, it will be one based on meritocracy, not nepotism. Hell, you look like you have a decent head on your shoulders, why not try to run for the leadership?"

"Wha!? No! No no no no! I'm not made for something like that. A-and I'm a noble! The people will never accept that!"

"If you campaign on the basis of deserving the position because of your nobility then no, they will not accept you. Earn the support and trust of the people with your deeds, your actions and your behaviour. The only difference between a noble and a commoner is the ability to use magic. That has absolutely no bearing on your competence in other areas. Do well and you'll gain the people's adoration even if you're a member of the nobility."

"But I can't, I'm not worthy… and for all his faults, I can't betray my king."

"Chances are, anyone who claims that they're worthy are anything but. If you won't step up I won't force you, it does leave us with a problem though. The revolution needs a proper leader, one that isn't me. If you won't, I don't have any other candidates. The villagers are spirited but not quite ready for that role yet. Having a noble as a champion of the people would also show the rest of the world that we are committed to building a better future for everyone. That it will be built through mutual cooperation and not the oppression of any one group."

Silence descended on them as Charles mulled the words over in his head. "…I have one possible candidate who could fit."

"Do tell."

"Crown prince Wales. He's still young, about your age actually, and unlike his father has the adoration of the common folk. That was before Reconquista's rebellion though, I don't know if he retains that good will anymore."

"Interesting. Where is he now?"

"I…I don't know. I was assigned as his guard awhile back and we were supposed to hamper Reconquista by harassing their navy with our own ship in hit and run attacks. That changed about two months ago. His highness came across information that there was another member of the royal family hidden away somewhere on Albion and Reconquista was aware of her existence. Royalist forces are too badly compromised for him to send anyone else to investigate."

"So he went alone and you wound up stationed here for intelligence gathering."

Charles nodded before continuing. "Indeed. He was supposed to update me with details every two days with a magical artefact he carries with him. But shortly before you arrived his messages stopped coming. The last I heard from him was that he'd discovered something massive beneath Saxe-Gotha… after that nothing."

"I see… that complicates things. I'll look into it."

"You will? How?"

"Believe it or not, my base happens to be nearby. I was planning on returning after today anyway to start work on building up the supplies needed to march on Midgand. After the beating we gave Reconquista, they won't be trying anything funny for a while so now's the perfect time to do so."

"March on Midgand? You can't… my god you are serious. Midgand is one of the strongest forts in all of Albion, even the royalist base of Newcastle is less fortified. They have cannons that outrange even the largest guns on the Lexington, even with the new guns attacking it is suicide!"

"Indeed, but the guns are just the beginning, I have more than a few aces up my sleeve. The only thing I need is time to prepare them, time that we now have. Leave the supply issues to me, you just continue training the militia. Oh, and feel free to report to your superiors in the royalist camp, I don't mind at all."

"You don't mind that I'm reporting vital information to potential enemies? You're… you're not quite right in the head are you."

"So I've been told. At this moment the royalists aren't my enemy, Reconquista is. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. Attacking us does nothing except weaken the only things standing in Reconquista's ambition regardless of who wins. Besides, if this crown prince is as great and adored as you say, he might end up as one of the leaders of the rebellion."

Saito stood and dusted himself off before making for the door. "It is in everyone's best interest that you continue as you have. I should go, sun's going to set soon and I need to cover a lot of ground. Have a good day Charles."

-line break

Wales took a deep breath and bit down on a piece of cloth before carefully extracting the broken arrowhead from his side. Spots danced across his vision as the pain nearly overwhelmed him.

His breath coming in short pained bursts now, Wales lifted his wineskin with shaky hands and poured its contents on the wound. The water washed away most of the dirt and grime and his consciousness nearly went with it.

Biting back a scream, Wales started to bandage himself. Once satisfied with the results, he pulled himself onto his feet and proceeded deeper into the castle, using the wall to support himself.

The cold marble on his skin provided some measure of relief from the pain and kept him focused on just putting one foot in front of the other.

He left behind the wreckage of two massive stone doors and exhaled a painful sigh of relief when none of the murderous golems on the other side managed to breach his makeshift barricade.

His attire was mostly rags at this point, near constant combat for several days straight had worn his royal attire down to almost nothing. Dark rings circled his eyes and his skin had taken on an unhealthy pallor after being stuck in this hellhole for so long.

Wales grit his teeth as he stumbled and nearly blacked out again. Drawing strength from thoughts of his beloved in Tristain, he forced himself to remain standing. "I will not die here. Not like this. I refuse! Do you hear me! I REFUSE!"

Whatever strange magic was at work in this twisted land reacted to his declaration and a minute amount of power trickled into him.

The crown prince exhaled as the pain lessened somewhat and he could breathe easier. For the millionth time since he'd been stuck here, he wondered what sort of sorcery had been weaved over the place.

To think it had started out so simple, interrogation of a captured Reconquista spy had revealed that the late archduke de Albion, his uncle, had a daughter that he hid away before King James had him offed. Further investigations had led him to Saxe-Gotha, a land once held by a noble family that had been purged during the same incident as his uncle.

That was when things got weird.

The supposedly almost completely worthless piece of land had an entire bloody city buried beneath the ground. There was a local legend that during the time of the founder, Albion had been part of the mainland and not a floating continent.

Some unspecified disaster had struck and to survive the mages of that time had found a way to float their largest city. Their actions had uprooted the city and its surrounding lands, forming a new landmass that would one day come to be known as Albion.

The spell while miraculous had the side effect of trapping the entire city in a cocoon of earth, cutting it off from the sun forever. The survivors of the disaster had no choice but to abandon the city to live on the surface and overtime the source of their salvation had passed into myth, remembered only by those who continued to live in Saxe-Gotha, the original exit to the surface.

To the locals, it was nothing more than a tall tale passed down through the ages good for nothing more than a laugh and maybe attracting tourists since no one had ever discovered the mythical city.

Wales refused to discount it however. Perhaps the hidden city was an exaggeration and didn't exist, that didn't mean the legend didn't have a grain of truth to it. Most nobles had an underground shelter built for emergencies, with Albion being in the clouds, destructive storms were not exactly rare. The shelters just tended to be attached to their residence instead of out in the middle of nowhere.

If one really was built here in ages long past, it'd be the perfect place to hide secrets… like say a hitherto unknown member of the royal family. Enchanting the entrance to only reveal itself to select individuals wasn't too difficult to do either.

And so the prince had set out on his search, aided by an artefact passed down through the royal family. It looked like nothing more than a simple bracelet but it had two unique properties that made it indispensable.

First it could communicate across long distances by creating a portal of sorts through which two parties could speak. He'd been using that function to update his loyal retainer Charles about his situation thus far.

The second was that it could detect any and all forms of magic. Even those designed to be hidden would be clearly seen as a glowing aura as long as he wore the bracelet. And that led him to the entrance to the underground city.

A truly enormous amount of magic was concentrated in an empty field, so much that it was blinding to even look at. Searching the area with magic had come up empty as the wards cleanly deflected his detection magic.

Wales gave up on subtlety in the end and just opted to blast the ground with his most powerful wind spell, confident in his ability to escape should anything go wrong. His excavation efforts uncovered a passageway the size of a house dug into the earth.

The walls were burnished grey and unfamiliar runes glowed softly in the darkness. It was a straight corridor sloping downwards gently until it disappeared into darkness.

The prince had paused only to update Charles about the discovery before venturing into the abyss. Things went to hell in a handbasket as soon as he left the light of the surface behind. There was a rumbling and the ceiling had collapsed behind him.

Attempts to remove the blockage and return to the surface failed as his spells threatened to weaken structural integrity further, potentially burying himself alive if he persisted. Bereft of any other option, Wales had trudged even deeper into the earth, his path lit only by a small orb of light he summoned and the glowing runes.

The path never once deviated from a perfectly straight line and he soon lost track of time. After walking for ages without coming any closer to an exit or seeing any change to his surroundings, frustration had built up inside and that morphed into anger.

"This is ridiculous… there must be a trick to this place. These walls can't be real, its not possible to have a perfectly straight slope downwards for this long. I should have exited on the other side of the continent by now."

His frustration spilling over, the prince slammed his fist into the wall, expecting the pain to grant him a surge of adrenaline.

Instead of bouncing off the metal, the fist sailed straight through the same wall he'd been leaning against just seconds before. As soon as he stopped believing in it being reality, the wall stopped existing.

Off balance from the lack of impact, he stumbled forwards and the rest of his body passed through the illusion as well.

Beyond it lay an inky black void and most importantly, there wasn't a floor.

Falling into the abyss, his flight ended as quickly as it began when he landed in a lake of liquid. More viscous than water, he felt like swimming in syrup. Flailing around in the darkness, Wales managed to reach the surface and crawled onto a beach of white sand.

Coughing up the liquid that he'd inhaled, he looked up to find himself staring at a pure white wall that shimmered even in the darkness. Ivy grew out of the cracks that lined it and parts of the battlements had collapsed.

It was old, older than anything above ground. The portcullis was shut tight but next to it a section of the wall had crumbled away, leaving just enough room for him to slip through.

A quick check of his inventory revealed that he had lost everything in his pack, only his wand, bracelet and wineskin remained. Trying to contact the viscount had failed when the portal refused to connect, showing only his own face in it.

Without supplies and no clue where he was or how to return, the only option left to him was to move forwards and hope something behind the wall would prove useful.

A sprawling city lay beyond it, completely devoid of life. Buildings in varying states of disrepair lined the deserted streets. Illumination was provided through glowing crystals placed atop curious metal poles planted into the sidewalk.

Despite the obvious age of the place, Wales could identify similarities in the design philosophy to Newcastle and Londinium. Perhaps the idea that the people of Albion once came from this strange city wasn't so farfetched after all.

Magic was everywhere in this place, it was in the ground, it was in the buildings, it was in the very air itself. The spellwork was completely unknown to him despite all the studies he'd done on magic theory. There was no arguing the effects however, he felt rejuvenated just by being here, his hunger and tiredness faded away as he moved.

Not a single soul could be found and he wondered when was the last time someone actually ventured into the city. He doubted that his unknown cousin had been sequestered here somewhere but this was an amazing find in its own. This ancient wonder put to shame everything they had built above ground.

Unfortunately for the prince, any supplies that might have been left behind during the exodus had long since been reduced to dust by the passage of time and he was still no closer to an exit.

Surrounded by the strange yet so oddly familiar landscape, Wales found the days slipping through his fingers. The magic sustained him, nourished him, kept him on his feet. He didn't tire, didn't hunger, didn't thirst.

He tried committing as much of his discoveries to memory as possible and slowly but surely made his way deeper into the city. His pockets were already jammed full of various knickknacks he'd picked up along the way and he sorely regretted losing his pack in the fall.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he finally reached the city centre and exited the twisting streets finding himself at the foot of a marble bridge lined with more ornate versions of those light emitting metal posts found in the city. A moat of the same liquid he'd landed in earlier flowed silently beneath it.

A magnificent castle untouched by the decay afflicting the rest of the city waited at the other end of it. Made from the same white stone as the city walls, tattered banners flew from the towers in a non-existent breeze. Stained glass windows caught the light and reflected it, making the structure a work of art.

"Impressive."

Striding across the bridge, trouble found him as soon as he stepped off it. The sound of metal grinding on metal reached his ears and the moat began to bubble.

Armoured golems twice the size of a normal human marched out of the moat, armed with a variety of weapons, their hostility was proven when an arrow narrowly missed skewering him.

Wales had retaliated with one of the strongest wind spells he had, a blast of wind honed into a single sharp spear that could penetrate most defences to destroy his foes.

He had grinned when the spear completely ripped the golems in its path to pieces, scattering their broken parts around.

That grin faded when the parts started reassembling themselves.

His attacks didn't do much except temporarily incapacitate them. His path back into the city was cut off by the golem army that was still pouring out of the moat.

With no means of taking down the metal monstrosities and no way back, he sprinted towards the castle itself, hoping that it would be a more defensible location.

The 'twang' of a metal bow string was a sound he would come to hate. When the golems were unable to keep up with him due to his speed enhancing wind spell, several of them had deployed greatbows even larger than them.

The devastation they wrought was unbelievable. Only sheer dumb luck had allowed him to dodge the first one when he tripped over a loose tile. The arrow, itself a behemoth the size of his arm, had passed overhead and struck the castle wall.

The projectile punched straight through it and from the sound of destruction coming from the castle, the next few walls behind it as well.

The prince poured his willpower into his spell and retaliated with a supercharged blast of wind, knocking down the approaching golems and deflecting several smaller arrows. The greatbow golems had anchored themselves into the ground and weren't blown away like the rest, they did have to cease firing preparations however.

That gave Wales enough time to reach the castle gates and blow them down with his spell as well. He didn't know where he was going, only that he needed to get inside lest the archers pick him off without effort.

Any hope that the golems would cease pursuit died when they came charging in after him.

Thereafter the 'battle' took on a nightmarish quality. The lighting was poor and the golems both outnumbered him and were more familiar with this place. He found himself walking into ambush after ambush and only luck and creative usage of his magic prevented him from a one-way trip to the afterlife.

A deadly game of cat and mouse that saw him evade the golems and hiding in a single spot for hours on end till pursuit squads passed and he could move on. Inevitably, he'd be spotted and the chase would be on again.

His luck ran out when he breached the inner keep. An arrow had been deflected by a wind spell but bounced off a nearby pedestal and buried itself in his side.

The pain destabilised his spell and instead of another focused spear of wind, he wound up firing a ball of compressed air that exploded into gale force winds upon contact. The force behind the spell caused the hinges on the stone doors to come undone, dropping the slabs on top of the golems and squishing them flat. A part of the ceiling collapsed along with it and sealed of that entrance.

Wales prayed that that would halt the golems but his gut told him that he would never be that lucky.

With his path back once more lost to him, the prince could only push forwards in the hopes that whatever lay ahead would be better than what he left behind.

Sucking in a deep breath, he raised his head high and marched into the darkness, refusing to let his circumstances beat him down.

He was the crown prince of Albion and he would meet the unknown as befit his status.

"I remain unbroken."

* * *

Author's notes: this will be the last chapter for a week, personal commitments ahoy! On the issue of 'mind control' familiar runes, I don't actually agree with that. I've gone through some of the novels and best I can tell is that the runes act as anti-depressants mostly.

The human familiars are supposed to be guards/soldiers/knights etc, anyone who's ever served in the military or law enforcement will tell you that skills and physical abilities isn't all there is to it. Mental fortitude is just as important if not more so since panicking in a stressful situation will get someone seriously hurt or killed.

From what I see, the runes are there to keep the familiars in the game so to speak, it prevents panic attacks, suppresses homesickness and depressive feelings and provides focus so that they can act when necessary instead of freezing up or worse, it's there to keep them alive.

And the brainwashing into complete obedience thing is BS, if it really did that Louise would have zero problems with Saito in canon since he'd just do everything she wanted exactly as she intended instead of constantly bickering with one another.

There is the issue of Brimir and Sasha however but I haven't read that far yet so that's a can of worms I won't touch.

Anyways, the Wales bit was completely extra and unplanned by the way. It just sort of appeared. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 6: The staff of destruction

"So… partner. Mind telling me why you're trying to break the world record for number of words muttered in a single breath? Just saying 'I'm doomed' over and over doesn't give me much to work with." Saito looked up from his paperwork at the frantic noble still busy pacing in circles.

"The familiar evaluation fair is in three days and we have nothing! AHHHH!" Louise paused her pacing to scream at her familiar before resuming at an even faster pace.

"Sorry, been a bit busy with the paperwork from your new estate. What's the fair about again?" Saito responded with a clueless voice. Truth be told, he already had everything planned out but messing with pinkie was one of the few forms of entertainment he had left to him with all the paperwork.

"Gah! All second years are supposed to present their familiars at the fair with a performance of sorts… and we've nothing planned!"

"Well… I could always beat up Guiche and Malicorne or fight a duel…" Saito let the suggestion hang in the air and the withering glare his partner shot his way made it worth it.

"How many times do I have to tell you, you can't just resort to force for all your problems. It's barbaric!"

"Nonsense, it is the tried and true problem-solving process for GDI. Step 1, identify problem. Step 2, apply military force. Step 3, repeat step 2 until problem ceases to be problematic. With the exception of that cockroach Kane, it's never failed."

The subsequent howl of frustration was music to his ears. "I don't care about how you did things back home! The princess will be there and I can't have you beating up nobles to showcase your talents! We need a solid performance and it needs to be good enough to win."

The fire in her eyes drew a small whistle from the general. "Nice of you to have so much confidence in me but I don't know how I'm supposed to be more impressive than a dragon."

"Grrr… come on, you must have some other talent. I don't know, can you juggle or something? Ahhhrghh! I'm doomed I'm doomed I'm doomed…"

"I am not a clown partner, so no, I don't juggle." The cloud of depression hanging over Louise was practically visible at this point to his amusement.

"But…"

Saito blinked as Louise suddenly appeared up in his face with an excessively eager expression. "What do have planned what is it tell me tell me tell me!"

"Ehem, I do have some skill with a violin and I could always play one for the showcase."

"A violin? Eh where are we supposed to get one at this time? I supposed we could…" Realisation dawned on Louise's face as she realised her familiar had set her up… again.

"You. YOU! You already had this planned out, didn't you!?"

"Guilty as charged." Saito sounded off nonchalantly before holding up his paperwork as a shield from the enraged mage.

"Ah uh uh! You blow me up and I'm taking the paperwork down with me. Then you can fill out the few hundred pages of 'lost paperwork' forms yourself. Wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Louise growled and reluctantly let go of the wand she had already half raised. "Stupid familiar! Do you have any idea how worried I was about the showcase!? Couldn't you have said something!?"

"Sure I could, but after you dumped salt in my coffee… no."

"That was an accident! And it was just one cup!"

"One cup of ultra-rare liquid gold that I can only enjoy once a month. I have precious little of it as it is and you went and desecrated a full cup of it. how could you partner! I thought we were friends."

"It was an accident! I didn't know the shaker would just topple over and dump everything inside the cup. And who asked you to stash it at the top of an unstable pile of books anyway?"

Saito waved a hand around to indicate the clutter that took up more than half of Louise's room. "You're the one who insisted I bring Mott's documents here instead of working on it at the mansion. Just so you know, this is only a fraction of the things I need to run through."

"W-well you're the one who went after Mott and took his title."

"I didn't hear you complaining when you were busy showing off your new title of count to everyone else. Bah, no use crying over ruined coffee now." Saito let out a small sob at the last bit.

"There's a violin in the manor that I could use. Haven't touched one in years so I am a little rusty, I'll head there immediately to begin rehearsing and I'll return the night before the performance."

"Alright, just… please don't embarrass us in front of the princess."

"Of course, I always aim to impress. Oh and just so you know, just because I'm not around doesn't mean you get to slack off on your training. That goes for Guiche as well. If I come back and I find that you haven't been keeping up with the regime, there will be _remedial training._ "

Satisfied with Louise's gulp and nervous nodding, Saito did a mock bow and leapt over the balcony, making straight for the mansion.

-line break

Longueville stood behind professor Colbert as the man relieved the guards stationed at the vault of their duty before assigning them to their new positions.

"Is this wise professor? I heard rumours that the phantom thief Fouquet would be targeting the vault."

"Nothing to worry about miss Longueville, the guards are mostly there for show. The true defence of the vault lies in the walls itself, not even a square class mage will be able to breach them. If the vault really is breached… then it's just as well that the guards aren't here, anyone strong enough to breach the walls won't even be slowed down by their presence."

"I see. But what other safeguards are there to protect the staff of destruction? I imagine that with its power, there would be more than a few willing to try to steal it. What if someone figures out how to get past the wards?"

"Unlikely as that scenario is, there aren't any spells on the staff itself save for whatever was used in its creation. Only the headmaster has ever seen it in action and to date, no one has been able to get it to work again. For the time being, presenting a proper welcome for the princess in the number one priority… I really don't think any thief will try anything when the princess is arriving tomorrow."

"I see… thank you for your time professor."

-line break

Saito scaled the wall before vaulting over the balcony railings and into Louise's room. Only reflexes honed by years of war kept him from being skewered by a rapier that materialised out of thin air.

Slapping aside the thin blade, he reacted on instinct and levelled his sidearm at his attacker only to pause as recognition sank in.

"Chevalier Agnes?" The general found himself staring at the blond musketeer he'd become acquainted with during the fallout of Mott's sudden downfall.

"Hiraga Saito? Pray tell, what exactly are you doing here at this time of night?"

"I could ask you the same. This is my master's room, it's only natural that I be here isn't it? If this is about the evidence from the manor, it's not ready yet."

"My, my, is this the familiar you've been telling me about Louise?" Before their banter could continue, an unfamiliar voice intruded and Saito's attention was drawn to a regal figure wearing a white dress and a travelling cloak.

"Unfortunately so your highness. Familiar! Put away your gun, you're in the presence of the princess herself!"

Noticing the loaded firearm was still in hand, Saito gave a sheepish smile as he holstered the pistol and saluted. "My apologies your highness, I meant no offence. Hiraga Saito, familiar of Count Valliere at your service."

"No need to stand on ceremony Mr Hiraga, as I've already told Louise, just address me as Henrietta."

"If you insist, and just Saito is fine, Mr Hiraga makes me feel old."

"Wha!? You can't do that! That's disrespectful! I'm so sorry for my familiar your highness, I'll be sure to properly re-educate him after this." Taken aback by Saito's informal tone, Louise began bowing and apologising profusely to the amusement of everyone else.

"Partner, it's a direct order from the princess. To do otherwise is to disobey a royal command. Are you suggesting I commit high treason in front of her highness herself? How very bold!"

"That's not! you- I- wuh?" Louise's brain promptly short circuited and it drew a small giggle from the princess. Even when they were children, Henrietta had never seen this side of her friend, it was refreshing and a welcome break from all the stuffiness she had to put up with on a daily basis.

"My my Louise, you just rose to a count and now you've already set your sights on the throne? Ambitious, aren't we?" The princess said with a smile.

"That's not… uuu… alright! I'll call you H-Henrietta!"

Saito faded into the background as the two friends continued catching up on old times. He retrieved a small stack of papers from one of the many piles and handed it over to the musketeer. "There's still quite a large amount I haven't sorted through yet but these are some of the more suspect financial statements. Should be worth looking into for now."

"Excellent work. You've done Tristain a great service, with this we'll be able to root out the corruption in our ranks." Agnes nodded appreciatively and slipped the documents into a small pouch on her waist.

"It's a little more than just regular corrupt nobles I'm afraid. Unless I'm mistaken, some of the more recent payments were from other nations. Mott didn't record much about the transactions but the name Reconquista shows up in more than a few of his letters. Could be something, could be nothing, I don't know enough to make a judgement yet."

Agnes eyes narrowed at the mention of the gathering of religious fanatics and power-hungry nobles. Now that she thought of it, the anti-Henrietta faction had been growing in boldness ever since Albion fell into chaos, their meddling had effectively stonewalled any attempt to send aid to the royalists.

"We will look into it. Again, thank you for your assistance."

"Just doing my duty as a familiar of Count Valliere."

Agnes suppressed a small snort at those words. "You aren't fooling anyone _familiar_ , the Mott incident was entirely of your own doing, Lady Valliere just went along with it. Everyone can see that the girl doesn't have the political acumen to pull of a stunt like that on her own. Just what are your intentions really?"

"Appearances can be deceiving chevalier, Louise will surprise you yet… you can relax though, I have no ambition aside from helping Louise achieve hers… which is to be a great noble in the service of the crown, nothing more nothing less."

Saito shrugged and his eyes betrayed the weariness in him for a brief instant before steel replaced it. "I'm supposed to be dead, for better or for worse, she summoned me at the end of my last stand. Most people don't get second chances like that and right now all I want is to see her achieve her dreams in exchange for the extra time she bought me."

"That's it? What about your own desires? You can't honestly expect me to believe you don't have any ambition at all. You have talent but no desire to carve out your own legend?"

Saito glanced over at his partner and noted that she wasn't listening in. "Carving out a legend is overrated, it's lonely at the top. I've already lost everything and everyone I ever cared for once, now I'm just waiting to die so I can see them all again."

"You're not going to-" Agnes started only to be interrupted by a chuckle.

"Relax, I'm not going to go chew on a gun any time soon. The guys will never let me hear the end of it if I take the easy way out. I don't have _any_ dreams left so I'll help Louise achieve hers… and maybe leave the world a better place than I found it."

-line break

Saito bowed as he received a standing ovation for his rendition of a piece of classical music from before his world went to shit. Even in a foreign world Beethoven's ode to joy did not fail to impress.

Walking off stage, there was a burning sensation in his familiar runes, before he could question the occurrence, his vision wavered and a massive rock golem filled it. Its massive arm was raised overhead and about to smash down when it disintegrated under the firepower of a very familiar explosion.

"Aw shit, Louise!" As the vision faded, Saito broke into a dead sprint for the courtyard in his vision, already slipping on his knuckles.

As the explosions grew louder, he rounded a corner to find Louise breathing heavily while surrounded by a small army of human size rock golems. The giant one had half its upper torso blown to hell and one of its legs smashed to pieces but was already pulling itself back together by absorbing several smaller golems.

Louise heaved a sigh of relief as she caught sight of her familiar. "You're late Saito!"

"Sorry, busy trying to win you the prize." Saito called out while dashing into the throng of enemies. Ducking under a wide swing and knocked the offending golem's head clean off with an uppercut before roundhouse kicking another.

"What the heck's going on here?" Successfully tearing his way to Louise's side, he noted that the golems were of inferior quality to those Guiche could summon. Far slower and less durable than the Valkyries, they made up for it with their numbers.

"It's that thief Fouquet, she's broken into the school vault through the hole in the wall." Louise replied tersely as she blasted the giant golem back to the ground by removing its remaining leg.

"Hole in the…" Saito stared dumbly at the gaping hole in the side of the school building that was still belching thick black smoke.

"Why do I get the feeling you had something to do with that?"

"I… uh… I might have missed the giant with my first spell." Came the sheepishly reply.

"Missed. How the heck do you miss something that large at point blank range!?" The incredulity was palpable in his tone.

"I panicked ok! It's not like I get attacked by giant golems every day."

At that moment, a hooded figure leapt out of the smoke carrying a large case in their hands and interrupted their bickering. "Many thanks for your assistance girlie, you saved me a lot of digging. But now I must leave… have a nice day!"

Saito growled and drew his sidearm, firing as soon as he had a lock. His frustration increased when his bullets were repelled by a layer of rock armour that formed around the thief. Cursing his lack of foresight to load AP rounds, he was forced to return his attention to beating back the horde of golems trying to swarm them.

"Partner, how many explosions do you have left? We're going to be overrun if we continue like this."

"Just one large one I think. My willpower hasn't recharged from all the magic practice and I've almost burnt out my reserves trying to bring that golem down."

"Right… in that case dump everything you have into blowing that giant to hell once it's finished regenerating." Saito instructed as he beat back the approaching golems. Their numbers were thinning now as the giant absorbed their ranks to rebuild itself.

"Right." Sucking in a deep breath, Louise focused her tired mind and dug deep to draw out every last scrap of power she had left. Entrusting her protection to her familiar, she closed her eyes and stood still, ordering her volatile magic into a spell that came to her in that instant.

Hearing the soft chanting behind him, Saito redoubled his efforts to hold the line, swinging his bloody fists without rest and sending rock chunks flying with every blow. He ignored the pain from wherever he'd been forced to eat the blows for Louise and sunk into a familiar battle trance that served him through his years of fighting.

Duck. Swing. Uppercut. Dodge. Right hook. Roundhouse.

His perception of time began to slow as he sunk into a comfortable rhythm. Pushing aside any unnecessary stimuli, his emotions faded into the background as logic ruled in its place, becoming more machine than man.

When several golems were pierced by ice spikes before vanishing in a torrent of flames, he merely nodded in the direction of Tabitha and Kirche without slowing his melee rampage.

With the reinforcements, they began to make headway against the waves of golems until all that remained was the fully repaired giant. Not missing her cue, Louise pointed her wand at the golem and shouted. "EXPLOSION!"

The giant was engulfed in a sphere of white light and once it faded, not even ashes marked its passing. Silence reigned in the courtyard after that, broken only by a small 'I did it' from Louise as her legs gave out under her, unconscious before Saito caught her.

The sound of stampeding feet reached their ears and Saito shot a withering glare at the teachers and guards who picked this moment to show up.

"You're late."

-line break

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Saito questioned as Louise lay resting against the cart.

"I'm fine! You don't have to worry so much you know."

"You collapsed from exhaustion and now you're on a mission to hunt down a wanted fugitive with less than 24 hours of rest. I think I have the right to be worried."

"Hey! Don't look down on me Saito, I've been following your sadistic training up till now haven't I? I'm not weak anymore!" Louise shot back petulantly.

"…Just don't push yourself too hard alright? You don't have to prove anything."

Louise shook her head before speaking again. "This isn't about my pride Saito. You heard them in the headmaster's office. The nobles are blaming Henrietta for Fouquet's attack. They're saying that Fouquet only succeeded in stealing the staff of destruction because she selfishly demanded that the guards be reassigned to guarding her."

"Anyone who believes those words are either fools or traitors. You saw Fouquet's little army, exactly what do you expect a bunch of commoners with swords to do against something like that? Get stepped on?"

"It doesn't matter. Henrietta is the first friend I ever made. I won't let her down, not now, not ever. None of the teachers are willing to go after Fouquet except professor Colbert but he's still injured, so we'll just have to retrieve the staff of destruction on our own."

"Heeey! Don't talk like we're not here zero. We're not letting you go in alone right Tabitha?" Louise twitched as Kirche's obnoxious voice assaulted her ears. Tabitha merely nodded in greeting before returning to her book.

"And why are you here Zerbst? This is a Tristainian issue, Germanians aren't required… unless you're here to spy?"

Kirche nearly facefaulted as the accursed 'S' word reappeared. "FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT A SPY! Really, I go out of my way to offer my help and I get accused of spying!?"

Kirche sank to her knees and hugged Flame, letting out several loud sobs in an exaggerated manner, drawing sighs from the other passengers.

"Will you please keep it down? We're trying to sneak up on the thief's hideout, at this rate she'll know we're coming." Longueville hissed from the driver's seat as she increased the horses' pace.

Before long they came upon the supposed hideout. An abandoned house in the middle of the woods exactly as Longueville's information had described. Saito frowned as his instincts screamed that he was missing something.

"Something's wrong." He muttered to himself before noticing that everyone was staring at him.

"Right, I'll go in first just in case this is a trap. Tabitha, do you mind keeping watch from the skies?" The quiet girl nodded and mounted Sylphid, taking to the air immediately.

"Louise, be ready for anything, especially if that giant golem shows up again. Zerbst… just keep her safe." Upon receiving two nods, Saito took a deep breath and sprinted for the house.

Sneaking in through an open window, Saito carefully surveyed his surroundings. A thick layer of dust covered everything, completely undisturbed save his footprints. Drawing his pistol and thumbing the safety off, he carefully advanced through the deserted building, not liking what he was seeing.

As he cleared the rooms one at a time, the sense of disquiet eating at him increased in intensity. The house had been abandoned for a long time and the only indication that Fouquet had been here were two sets of tracks leading inside from the main door.

They were recent, _very_ recent. Saito couldn't see how this was supposed to be a hideout at all, the tracks indicated the Fouquet entered the building and left in short order without doing much else. Unless the thief was trying to make it look like the place was uninhabited with magic, the dust would have told a different story if the hideout was lived in. And if it was magic, there was no explanation for the tracks not being covered up.

'Right. Definitely trap. Time to spring it.'

Following the tracks while being wary of an ambush, he entered the basement. There on a pedestal lay the metal case he'd seen Fouquet carry off the day before. Checking around for traps, he again found nothing, bereft of any other option, Saito sucked in a breath before kneeling to take a closer look at the case.

'Ok… what the hell is going on? Why go through all that trouble to steal a staff and then leave it in an abandoned house? Let's see what's inside the box shall we?'

Keeping one eye on his surroundings and gun at the ready, Saito used his free hand to pop the seals on the case and lift the lid. As he beheld the treasure within, he found his breath taken away and he was unable to stop his awe filled voice from sounding out.

"No fucking way! This is… this is… holy shit. Holy shit! Ah… hahahh…. HHAHAHAHAHA!" Picking up the shoulder mounted weapon, he hefted it and found the weapon's weight to be perfectly suited for him as the familiar runes lit up the dark basement.

"Oh this explains so much! I get it now, our thief doesn't know how to use this baby so he left it here in the hopes of finding someone who could use it… sucks to be them. It's mine now."

Leaving the case behind, he stood up and marched back out the front door, waiting for the inevitable onslaught.

He wasn't disappointed.

A thunderous roar scattered the birds roosting in the trees as the earth began to shift. The giant rock golem from before clawed its way out of the ground and towered over the landscape. He could hear the panicked shouts coming from Louise and Kirche but paid it no mind.

The golem wasn't after them at the moment. No, it was after him. "No better place to field test something than in the actual field itself yes? You want me sumbitch? Come get some!"

Raising his new favourite toy, Saito lined up his sights with the golem and squeezed the trigger. A blue beam left the barrel and struck the golem, blowing it to pieces in one shot. The beam continued and cut a line through the sky.

There was a brief pause as though the world was trying to figure out what the heck just happened before a dozen of the smaller golems rushed out of the trees trying to get at them.

A small tornado formed in the centre of the mob and a fireball struck it dead on, turning it into a firestorm from the depths of hell that melted all the golems. A second group that tried rushing out after the first was promptly terminated by rushing into a ball of light that left nothing behind. The third and final group attempting to flank them met their end when Saito fired through the trees to reach them.

The general's grin stretched from ear to ear as he regrouped with the others, the soft whine coming from his weapon only improving his mood. "Today is a good day."

"O-oi Saito, what the heck is that?" Louise was the first to voice the question in the minds of all the nobles as they stared at the silver-grey cube thing on his shoulder.

"The staff of destruction of course. What else would it be. And it's all mine! ahhhahahhahaha!" The demented laughter drew sweat drops from the nobles.

"What do you mean yours? We need to return it to the school to hiik!" Louise's words were cut off when several earth spikes erupted out of the ground and their pointy ends stopped just short of impaling her neck. A quick glance told her that both Tabitha and Kirche were likewise disabled, only Saito had managed to leap away in time to avoid them.

"I'm afraid it belongs to me. Hand the staff over familiar or your master dies." Longueville tapped her wand against her leg, a smug smile painted over her visage.

"M-miss Longueville! What are you doing!?" Kirche questioned in a higher pitched voice than normal.

"Ah… so that's what I was missing. Not much point complaining, Lady Zerbst, Longueville is Fouquet." Saito shook his head and let out a small self-deprecating laugh at his failure to spot the threads.

"Can't believe I missed the obvious. Commoners spotting a hooded figure retreating to a house in the middle of the woods miles from civilisation? Yeah… not bloody likely. And of course, you called Fouquet a 'she' when everyone else thought she was a man. Well played Fouquet."

"Yes, you bought the helpless secretary act completely. Now drop all your weapons and back away slowly… that goes for you girls as well. I'll stab those spikes into your skulls before you get even a single spell off so drop your wands."

"Do as she says, no point throwing away your lives for nothing." Saito said as he himself complied with the demands. Without making any sudden movements, he slowly placed the staff of destruction on the ground followed by his sidearm and knuckle dusters.

Emptying his pockets to show he had nothing left, Saito raised both hands in the air and stepped away from the pile. "So why the charades? You had the staff and nobody even suspected you. Why go through all this?"

"Ah… really I didn't want to either. But my client's instructions were clear. Retrieving the staff nets me half the payment, figuring out how it works gets me the other half. Of course, there's the problem of no one knowing how to make it work which is where you come in. The legendary gandalfr is perfect for it."

"Gandalfr? What the heck is a gandalfr?" Saito questioned.

He was met with a peal of laughter from the thief. "Oh this is rich, you don't even know what you are. The gandalfr is a familiar with the ability to use any weapon instinctively, you're the perfect person to figure out how use an unknown weapon."

Fouquet confidently strode over to the pile of weapons and picked up the staff, struggling slightly under its weight. "Many thanks again brat, you just made me a very rich woman."

"You don't seriously think you'll get away with this do you? Up till now you were just a thief, now that you've gone and threatened a count and two foreign nobles, you'll be hunted down wherever you go… all that money won't save you."

"You forget boy, I'm the trusted secretary of the headmaster. All I need to do is tell him how the lot of you fought valiantly against Fouquet before falling to his superior skills and the staff of destruction was lost in the process. Such a shame you have to die here but I need that money."

Raising the staff and pointing it at Saito, her finger found itself at the trigger. "Nothing personal brat. It's just business."

Ignoring the cries emanating from the captured students, Fouquet squeezed the trigger… only for nothing to happen. Staring dumbly at the weapon, she started hitting it as though that would cause it to regain its functionality. "What!? What's going on!? Why won't it work!?"

She was distracted from her rage by a small metal rectangle bouncing off the staff and into the air in front of her. Directing a questioning gaze at it, a quick 'huh?' was the only thing she got out before her world collapsed in a deafening cacophony when the rectangle detonated.

Dropping to her knees, the staff and her wand fell to the ground as she pressed her hands to her bleeding ears in pain. Looking up in disbelief, her vision was filled with the sight of Saito's boot approaching her face.

She blacked out briefly from the pain of the boot meeting her chin, a coppery taste filled her mouth as she awoke. Trying to get to her feet, she found herself securely bound and her wand nowhere in sight. Looking up, she was surrounded by three very free and very pissed nobles, with Saito standing in the background with an amused smile.

"How?"

"I'm ZOCOM that's how. Normally this is the part where I conduct field interrogations… but, they want their pound of flesh first." Fouquet turned back to the girls and gulped when Tabitha stared at her with her usual emotionless expression while cracking her knuckles, a sight somehow more terrifying than the rest.

"Um… m-mercy?"

Her screams echoed through the forest as the girls made their frustration regarding her betrayal known in no uncertain terms.

-line break

"Excellent work all of you! You've made an old man very proud. But uh… miss longuev-Fouquet was in pretty bad condition when she arrived. What happened exactly?"

"She resisted arrest so we took her down using minimum necessary force. After that she kept trying to escape and her injuries were caused when she accidentally fell off the cart." Saito answered smoothly, smiling innocently at the dubious look the headmaster sent his way.

"Right… in any case for your services to the crown, there are talks of her majesty awarding the title of chevalier to the three of you. Although… since Tabitha here already has that title, she might get a medal or some other award instead."

The three mages looked up cheerfully at that. Louise was practically bouncing on the spot, Kirche carefully stroked her hair, trying not to seem too pleased by the turn of events and even Tabitha couldn't supress a small smile.

"Wait… what about Saito?" Louise paused when she realised Osmond didn't mention anything about her familiar. The headmaster coughed lightly before turning a sheepish gaze to the person in question.

"Right… about that. Because he's not a noble and there aren't any records about where he came from. It's… complicated."

"I'm ok with that." Saito said to forestall any complaints.

"I don't need any titles or rewards. Doing my job and bringing everyone home alive is enough."

"Well… I'm glad that you are agreeable to that… but would you mind returning the staff of destruction now? The vault has been fixed and we really should put it back in."

"Sorry, but that's not happening. The Merlin belongs to me."

"E-excuse me?"

"The staff of destruction is property of GDI. As the only operative present, control of it defaults to me. I am curious though, how did this end up here anyway?"

"Um… well, thirty years ago when I was strolling through the forest, I was attacked by a massive two headed dragon. The beast was too powerful for me to defeat and would have eaten me if it wasn't for a stranger. He was already badly wounded by the time we met and he used the staff of destruction to kill the beast. I brought him back to the academy for treatment but it was too late… I didn't understand the language he spoke and in the end I could only give him a proper funeral. As for the staff, I had it examined but no one could figure out how to use it and I had it sealed in the vaults out of respect for the stranger. C-can you explain what you mean by the staff is property of GDI?"

"The staff of destruction isn't from this world, it's from mine. Back home, it's known as the Merlin personal ion canon, one of the most powerful man-portable weapons in the entire GDI arsenal. Very few were ever built and most were destroyed in combat… except this one. I'm the only one who can use it anyway since the weapon won't work for anyone who doesn't have a GDI identification chip."

"You told me you were a general of this GDI… haah… I guess I can't fault you for trying to retrieve a weapon of your own military. The nobility won't be happy about this."

"If they are loyal to the crown, they have nothing to fear. My dear partner aims to become the arm of the princess, when she succeeds, I will be the blade. If the Merlin is used against a noble, it will be because they're traitors and I've been ordered to deal with them."

"I… see… well I suppose I don't have any reason to stop you, the only alternative is leaving it to collect dust in the vault. Ah right, since Fouquet has been caught, tonight's ball of Frigg will continue as planned. I won't keep you any longer, enjoy yourselves, you've earned it."

The nobles filed out first and Saito motioned for Louise to go on without him. "Headmaster, this… stranger, where… where was he buried?"

"…You wish to pay your respects then." A nod. "Come with me, I don't know how you conduct your funerals in your world but I gave him the best one I could think of. It's just outside the school grounds.

Following behind the headmaster, their journey didn't take very long at all. In a fenced off area of the forest, there was a peaceful clearing with a small lake in the centre. A tomb made out of solid diamond stood at its shore, the waves lapping at it gently.

"After he… passed, I had his wounds cleaned and entombed him in his strange armour. After that I used magic to turn the rocks into diamond to serve as his memorial… you… you don't mind, do you?"

Saito approached the tomb with shaky steps and knelt before it, staring blankly at the body within. Unbidden, several tears fell and stained his jacket.

"No. I appreciate what you've done… I think he would have too."

"Did you know him?"

"…Yes. I knew the colonel. Can I… can I carve an epitaph?" Saito asked while doing his best to keep his voice steady.

"Tell me what you want written and I'll use my magic."

"Alright… here lies major general Nick Seymour Parker, who died as he lived, saving others and never backing down from a fight. And… and was like a father to me." Saito closed his eyes as he couldn't hold back the tears anymore, he saluted until Osmond was done with his magic.

"Who was he?"

"One of the greatest commandos to ever serve, and my inspiration for joining the commandos myself. I met him just over fifteen years ago after I lost my family to tiberium poisoning." Saito answered as soon as he trusted himself not to lose control over his own voice, he would not show weakness here, not in front of him.

"I would have died then but he took me in, gave me a home in GDI, gave me purpose. He wasn't good with people or kids but I was grateful all the same. Then one day he just vanished. Came out of retirement for one last job… never came back. I spent years searching to no avail… at least now I have an answer."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Don't be, he's in a better place now. I'll still do my best to live up to his memory…" Trailing off into silence, Saito snapped off another salute as he felt his self-control breaking.

'Wherever you are now, I hope you're proud of me.'


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 7: Trial

Mass production of spectre mobile artillery platforms was on track, thus far eight of them were ready for deployment while a further six stood by in the reserves. Field tests indicated all systems functional and they simply awaited an actual target now.

Saito nodded with satisfaction as several cyborg shadow teams were likewise combat ready. Just a little longer and he'd be able to shell the ever-living crap out of Midgand and any other Reconquista forces in the area.

The only issue plaguing him was the fact that troop redesign was proceeding a lot slower than he'd hoped. Tiberium based arms and upgrades were perfectly fine back on Earth where they'd just be another drop in the ocean, but Halkeginia was a different story. The risk of tiberium infection was too high to justify fielding them.

Which left him the unenviable task of having to recreate other tech from whatever blueprints hadn't been scrubbed in the name of compartmentalisation. Repurposing his production facilities to produce something they weren't designed for was another major headache.

Still, it was a headache he'd willingly bear if it meant he could field tiberium troopers again. Sure he could just stick a rifle or rocket launcher on them but that was highly resource inefficient. The sooner he managed to reproduce the obsolete flamethrowers used by the black hand the better. With the world still placing large focus on infantry battles, dedicated anti-infantry weapons capable of melting flesh would be a massive psychological advantage.

A loud crash reached his ear and Saito sighed in exasperation. His eye began to twitch when the scorpion tank backed up only to immediately ram into the side of his war factory a second time. "Again? Really?"

In hindsight, giving a bloody tank to a bunch of kids to play with probably wasn't one of his best ideas. A small beeping came from his communicator, sighing as he hit a button, TIffa's worried face popped up. "Umm Mr Saito…"

"They're fighting over the controls again aren't they?" Saito could make out squabbling in the background and his command centre seemed more than a little messier than he remembered it. A sheepish nod was the only response from his master and Saito sighed again.

"Would you mind passing on a message? The kids will learn to share or I will remotely deactivate the tank then nobody gets a turn. And if they break something, they don't get to ride the avatars."

A nod and then the feed cut off, Saito was pleased to note that in its aftermath sweet blessed silence greeted his ears as the scorpion stopped trying to bulldoze the building. A part of him was glad that his old comrades weren't here to see this, if they ever found out he caved under the pressure of a few children begging for a chance to play on one of his 'toys' he'd never hear the end of it.

Still… he couldn't deny that a part of him enjoyed seeing smiles on their faces. Just a few more weeks before he had the resources to start building avatar war mechs, Saito could hardly wait for that day to come just so he could see the looks on their faces. After all, what kid doesn't love giant robots?

Returning his attention to the digital feed from one of his spy drones scouring the countryside for any sign of the prince, his attention was drawn to the one that had picked up an anomaly. The feed was grainy as ambient magicial energy played hell with the sensors but he could make out that a massive amount of earth had been gouged out as though hit by high powered artillery. At its centre was a tunnel descending into the earth. Quickly running through the calculations in his head, the tunnel had to be at least the size of a building.

"Well, hundred bucks says that's where our prince got off to." Saito surveyed his surroundings, at the moment there wasn't much else he could do. Production was in full swing and there wasn't a need for him to personally oversee things. With his earlier threat and Lady Tiffa, the children had been brought back under control and wouldn't level the base anytime soon… hopefully.

Saito sent out a command, marshalling twenty squads of awakened and two of the shadow teams into formation. The inquisitor nodded grimly as the cyborgs fell in line and prepared to march in the direction of the tunnel.

As for himself, he would proceed to the site in one of the available venoms. Magic occasionally screwed with his systems and it wouldn't do to have battle control terminated in the middle of an operation. He'd go in person to take direct command of the troops if remote operation failed.

Sending a message to his master about his actions, Saito took to the skies to scout out the route ahead. Even if reports indicated there were no Reconquista forces in the area, it wouldn't do to be careless and accidentally reveal the location of Westwood. The rest of the army would follow soon after.

"Alright, now we just have to retrieve the prince… if he's still intact."

-line break

Empty rooms with furniture haphazardly strewn around the place greeted Wales as he continued his journey through the empty castle. He was grateful for the cessation of pursuit by those murder happy golems. Less so about the insidious whispers that replaced them for the past few days.

The prince grinded his teeth in frustration as he uncovered yet another empty room, he was completely lost at this point and he swore the corridors were shifting around when he wasn't looking, even if the castle was bigger on the inside due to magic this was plain ridiculous.

" _You'll never escape."_

The shadows seemed to dance along the edges of his vision but every time he turned to look there was nothing there. No matter how hard he looked he could never find the source of the incessant whispering. All of his detection spells registered that he was alone in this section of the castle.

" _Why do you resist? Submit."_

The voice assaulted his ears again, little more than a whisper, in the confines of his mind it was deafening. Roaring in anger, Wales spun around and fired a burst of wind magic at empty air. The razor wind transformed a wooden table into a fine cloud of sawdust but had no other effect.

" _You fail again. You've always failed. You always will fail."_

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Wales dropped his wand and sank to his knees, pressing his palms against his ears, trying to shut the voice out.

" _You're a disappointment. A mistake."_

"ARRGHH!" Wales screamed and grabbed his wand, firing randomly at the shadows that crowded around him, levelling everything. "I am not a disappointment! I am not a mistake!"

" _Lies. You remember the shame in your father's eyes every time he looks upon you. You could never be the son he wanted."_

The voice was maddeningly familiar but Wales couldn't put a name to it. Always there, never granting him more than a few minutes of rest at a time, it was pushing his already frayed nerves closer and closer to a nervous breakdown.

"NO! I… I made him proud! He said so!" Half screaming, half crying, Wales staggered to his feet and starting running down the corridors, seeking an escape from this nightmare.

" _Lies to keep you happy. You bring only pain."_

"That's not true!"

" _You hurt your family with your failures. You hurt your retainers with your selfishness. You hurt your people with your incompetence… you hurt Henrietta with your cowardice."_

The crown prince grit his teeth and tried to keep the words from affecting him. "I WOULD NEVER HURT HER!"

" _You denied her feelings."_

"I… can't… my responsibilities… Reconquista would-"

" _Excuses. Nothing but cowardice."_

"And what would you have me do!? HUH!?" Wales stopped running and roared at the ceiling in place of his hidden antagonist. Tears of anguish pooled at the side of his eyes, threatening to fall at any moment.

"Do you _think_ I don't know that!? We have our own responsibilities! I cannot return her feelings, not if it gives Reconquista a reason to invade Tristain! I will not be a burden to her!"

" _But you already are. She will come for you."_

"No. No. Nonono… she cannot, she won't!"

" _She will."_

"No." Wales' heart sank as his denial sounded hollow even to his own ears.

" _Her agents will be intercepted by Reconquista spies… Tristain will burn because of you."_

"NO! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"

" _You can't do anything. You will die here, forgotten and alone, buried in your own self-doubt and cowardice. Reconquista will destroy the royalists, execute your hidden cousin and burn Tristain to ashes."_

"Ho-how do you know about all this… how do you know about Henrietta, about my cousin… are you working for Cromwell? Just who the fuck are you!?"

" _You know who I am."_

Wales clutched his ears and started running again as the voice degenerated into dark laughter, blindly throwing open doors and sprinting down the corridor beyond. Tears ran down his cheeks as his stressed mind conjured up images of the future, each one darker than the last.

His breathing was ragged and the sound of his beating heart pounded in his ears. Crazed eyes darted from shadow to shadow trying to find the voice. This wasn't like fighting the golems from before or Reconquista assassins, this was beyond anything he'd ever dealt with.

How do you fight an invisible enemy that weaponizes your deepest fears? How do you deal with an opponent capable of crushing you with words alone?

Wales had no answer to that. Throwing open yet another set of double doors, he absentmindedly noted that this was the first departure from the identical corridors of before. The walls were made of softly glowing ice-blue crystals polished to a mirror like sheen.

Countless distorted reflections of himself were displayed in them in all directions, a maddening sight that he barely paid attention to, his mind completely consumed with the voice that still plagued him.

"WHY DO YOU TORMENT ME SO!? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"

" _I want you to die."_

-line break

Saito watched with morbid amusement as several of his awakened had already partially phased through a perfectly solid wall. Slamming his fist against it and feeling the rebound proved that the wall wasn't a hologram or illusion, at least not of a type he was familiar with.

Checking the feed from his troops, every one of them showed the exact same thing, impenetrable darkness with no end and a lack of any walls. There wasn't even a roof, just the ground beneath their feet.

Peering over the edge with them yielded only more darkness. Saito glanced at the dim speck of light that marked where the entrance was and noted that his rangefinder was still giving an error. By his estimate, they'd moved half a kilometre into the ground and the tunnel continued to slope downwards without an end in sight.

Reviewing the footage from the awakened, he noted that the runes on the walls were repeating at a fixed interval, he had zero idea as to what they meant but he could take a rough guess. 'So spacetime is loopy here. Gonna chalk that up to more magical shenanigans. Going back isn't an option either.'

It was a conundrum with no easy outs. Returning to the surface was out of the question since whatever magic was at work in this place effectively negated his ability to control his troops. Commands would either not register or have their exact opposite be carried out. Only by entering the tunnel himself did he regain control.

The abyss on either side was an unknown, none of his sensors could detect anything at all other than the same energy permeating the whole place. Blindly marching forwards was a waste of effort as well. He had attached a tracker to a small ball earlier and let it roll downhill, at the moment the ball was several kilometres away and showed no sign of stopping.

He was convinced that the tunnel was enveloped in some kind of spell that allowed it to stretch on forever. Going back was a no go, going forwards a waste of time, that left going down but possibly losing his cyborgs.

With a command, one of the shadow teams stepped through the wall and deployed their gliders, beginning their descent into the abyss. The camera feed displayed nothing but pure darkness until a sudden burst of static obscured it.

When it cleared up the darkness was gone, replaced with a walled off city and a beach of white sand. The connection to the cyborgs was holding steady but their location data was a complete mess. The shadows landed on the beach and stowed their gliders.

When nothing jumped out and tried to eviscerate them, Saito nodded and sent a squad of awakened through the wall after them. Bereft of the gliders, they fell through the air like a brick, as with the shadows, their feed was momentarily obscured before they passed through the veil and landed wherever the shadows were.

The inquisitor noted that at the instant static claimed the awakened, there was a small burst of light on the shadows' feed. The awakened popped out of that burst and fell into the lake. Wading to shore, they were none the worse for wear. Scans of the liquid indicated that it was water albeit with an unknown energy signature.

"Right… I am not taking a dip in that. Connection is holding fine, I think I'll just sit here, the marked will handle the rest."

Curious as he was about the city on the other side of the abyss, the inquisitor was happy to just sit in the tunnel and direct the troops from there. Leading from the front to inspire men of flesh and blood was one thing, actively throwing himself into the unknown just to sate his own curiosity was quite another.

One by one the other cyborgs leapt into the void and emerged on the other side to regroup on the beach. The second shadow team was the last to go through, their gliders taking slightly longer to deploy than just marching off the edge.

That was when it happened. There wasn't even a rumble or warning of any sort. One moment he was seating comfortably, the next his ass met air as the floor simply disappeared.

Saito barely had the time to let out a curse before he went tumbling into the void. Fortunately he was close enough to the last shadow team that he could grab hold of one instead of diving headfirst into the abyss.

Ejecting the cyborg from the glider and allowing it to fall, Saito strapped himself in and corrected his erratic descent. After passing a certain point the transition happened without warning and his eyes widened in surprise as the landscape just appeared out of the darkness.

Landing on the beach, he cursed softly and ditched the glider, watching as the awakened plus one shadow exited the lake. Checking his command interface, Saito's face fell as an error message returned when he tried to contact his base.

"Aw fuck, so much for reinforcements and evac." He shrugged and squinted at the battlements between him and the city. A single tower of light extended into black void above originating from the castle he spotted during his descent.

Figuring that was as good a place as any to begin his investigations, the inquisitor had a few recon drones fly over the wall to investigate the city beyond. He ordered the shadows to begin planting det packs on the portcullis when scans indicated zero life signs beyond.

"Knock knock."

The det packs sheared straight through the steel and left a mess of glowing twisted metal behind. Satisfied with his new entrance, Saito entered with his troops falling in behind him. He blinked when he felt energy coursing through his body, a quick check on the status of his minions indicated their power cells were at full capacity and climbing without any adverse effects.

'Very interesting.' The inquisitor would have loved to continue investigating the strange phenomenon afflicting them but the pillar of light coming from the castle was increasing in intensity and he had a bad feeling about it. Taking advantage of the power boost, the small army sprinted full tilt towards the castle.

As he got closer, the sense of unease increased. He'd fought in abandoned cities before but something about this one was off and it wasn't just the magic in the air. The city felt… wrong for lack of a better word.

The first sign of trouble came when his motion tracker started beeping and countless red dots appeared. Human sized golems poured out of the woodwork and mobbed them with weapons drawn.

The cyborgs opened up with their guns immediately and the first line of golems went down in a hail of bullets. Several of the awakened went down when massive arrows fell out of the sky and impaled them with deadly accuracy.

Saito cursed and commanded his shadows to break off and hunt down the archers before they could demolish his forces.

Emptying his guns into the solid wall of incoming hostiles, Saito retreated into the centre of the formation while reloading, using the cyborgs as human shields. He didn't have time for this, the golems just kept pulling themselves together no matter how many times they were blasted to pieces.

A part of him regretted not upgrading his forces with the new prototype supercharged particle beams in favour of rushing out spectres. Saito highly doubted the golems would be able to rebuild themselves once they were melted into scrap by his awakened.

"Too late for regrets now, come on tin cans, lemme show you the true power of superior NOD engineering." Redeploying the awakened into a wedge formation, Saito increased their pace and there was audible crunching when the golems were crushed under the weight of the cyborgs suicidal charge.

Without self-preservation instincts and the magic supercharging them, their charge would not be halted and the golems collapsed under either point blank gunfire or being bludgeoned with mechanical limbs when ammunition ran out.

Despite their showing, the awakened weren't invincible and one by one they fell to their less advanced cousins. Arms of the fallen golems continued to grasp at their ankles, pulling down more than a few cyborgs before the others piled on and tore it apart.

Giant arrows continued to harass them whenever the shadows were unable to reach the archers and more cyborgs went down in mass of twisted blood and steel.

Jamming his pistol in the helm of a nearby golem, Saito squeezed the trigger and blasted the head to pieces, a small smile graced his face when he spotted the bridge leading to the castle through a gap in the enemy ranks.

Wiping away blood from a cut above his eye where a sword had nicked him, he split his remaining forces into three groups. One held position and fought with fanatical devotion to keep the golems from the rest. Another broke free from the melee and made for the centre of the bridge before holding position there. The last formed the inquisitor's personal guard and kept the oncoming golems at bay while they sprinted across the bridge.

Connection to the first group cut off before long as they were overwhelmed by enemy numbers, disappearing behind a mass of black iron. Saito keyed a few commands into his terminal and crossed over to the other side.

A blast of heat tickled the back of his neck and the sound of gunfire was lost in the blast the followed it. The world was bathed in orange as the second group forcefully overloaded their capacitors and self-destructed, blowing the bridge and halting pursuit at least temporarily.

'Out of the frying pan huh…' Saito sucked in a deep breath as more contacts appeared on his motion tracker. Larger versions of the golems he just blew through started marching out of the water and towards him.

Noting that the battle damage around him predated his arrival and was relatively recent, he surmised that someone encountered the same opposition he did and fought their way into the castle. Whether that was the reason for the golem's hostility or not he had no idea, nor did he care really. The damage bore signs of wind magic which fit the prince's profile, and Saito hoped that if it was Wales, the man was still alive.

At the very least the doors were blown in and there weren't any bloodstains indicating a wounded or dead human. Saito chose to take it to mean that the prince or whoever it was at least made it inside the castle, whether they were still alive and kicking or not…

Saito shook his head and pushed that possibility out of his mind, he didn't have the time to entertain such thoughts. Exhausting his last magazine, he flipped the pistol around and began using it as a club. Against armoured golems twice the size of man they weren't very effective weapons but with his enhanced strength he made it work.

Sacrificing two more awakened in a last-ditch attempt to hold off the horde with their self-destructs, the inquisitor made it inside with his personal guard cut down to a measly six cyborgs, a far cry from the army he begun with.

-line break

Wales had come to a dead end.

His mad escape had led him to a semi-circular chamber. The walls curved away from him and ended at a mirror that took up the length of the room. A single ornate sword was planted into the ground just in front of it.

" _No more running little prince."_

For the first time since the voice started whispering, Wales paid it no mind, the sword had consumed his focus entirely. He felt like a young child again, being given a stern talking to by his father after making a mistake. It left him feeling both nostalgic and melancholic, those days were long past, memories of a happier time, when his mother was still in the land of the living and his father actually smiled out of happiness.

In a dazed trance, the prince approached the sword and reached out to it, the wind was howling in his ears and he just knew if he could draw out the sword everything would be alright.

An electrical shock running up his arm snapped him back to reality and Wales bit back a cry as he pulled his stinging arm away from the sword.

" _Only the worthy may wield this sword. You are unworthy."_

"I am worthy! I don't know who you are or what you want but I am the crown prince of Albion, I will not be mocked by you any longer! Come out and face me coward! Or can you only hide behind words." Wales shot back at the voice, surprised at the rage boiling beneath his skin, something about the voice had changed. It was more familiar now although he still couldn't place it, being belittled by it was even more aggravating now.

Dark laughter was the response to his challenge. _"Have you looked in a mirror recently?"_

Wales furrowed his brows in confusion before staring at his own reflection, trying to identify what the voice was getting at. Unlike the distorted reflections in the crystal walls, the one in the reflection was perfectly clear.

He saw a tired man on the verge of collapse from his ordeals. He saw a man who despised his own weakness but lacked the conviction to grow. He saw a man deluding himself into the believing the hopelessness of his problems without searching for a solution.

He saw himself.

"Oh."

" _At last the blind fool opens his eyes to the truth."_ His reflection grinned and gave him a sarcastic slow clap.

"You. You're me."

" _Indeed. No more lies little prince, no more running."_ Now he could place it, the voice tormenting him relentlessly… it was his own.

His reflection ceased clapping and stepped through the mirror, raising a copy of his own wand and pointing it at the original. _"Time to show me what you're made of, prove yourself or die."_

The reflection launched a spear of wind towards Wales who barely managed to counter it with a magic shield of his own.

"Why!? Why are you doing this!? I don't want to fight you!" Backpedalling and warding off incoming spells, the prince put some distance between him and his doppelganger before retaliating.

" _Don't want to? Ha. Why should I stop? Your desires don't matter… you never have the guts to act on them anyway."_

"What the hell does that have to do with anything? This is pointless!" Wales fired back and was caught off guard by a bout of depressed laughter, leaving him open for a water whip to tear open his cheek.

" _Pointless? You see but you do not understand. I am you. I am every lie you ever told yourself. I am every emotion you ever bottled up because you were afraid to show it. I am everything you hate about yourself. No. This is a long time in the making."_ Punctuating each sentence with an assault spell, the doppelganger rapidly forced the prince back.

"So you're going to kill me because I refuse to accept you?"

" _Yes."_

-line break

Saito was cut off from his two remaining guards as a shimmering barrier sprung up between them, cutting off his retreat but also keeping the homicidal golems from getting to him. He watched with a frown as they fell upon the duo and reduced them to scrap before leaving.

"Okay… now what do I do." turning back to face the corridor he had been running down earlier, he noted that the same barrier had cut off most of the doors and side passages, leaving him a linear path to follow.

"Haaah… step one, identify trap. Step two, spring trap." Without any other options all the inquisitor could do was follow the path laid out for him. He kept a virtual map of the place stored in his memory but gave up on it after awhile when he noticed the path took him back to areas he should have covered earlier except were completely different.

"Spacetime magical bullshit again, got it… and can you stop with the whispering. Its rude to dig around in someone's head you know." Saito called out when his distorted voice started whispering in his ear. He didn't know how whoever was messing with him could just pluck things from his brain but he didn't like it in the least, it reminded him too much of the scrin and their fancy mind control.

" _Nothing but a machine, always at the beck and call of someone else. First Kane, now Tiffania, do you have a will of your own or are you just a weapon."_

"Why ask when you know the answer. The brotherhood is the arm of the prophet, and the Marked his blade. I _am_ a weapon."

" _And what of your desires? Stripped away with your humanity like so much else."_

"Humanity is overrated. I have seen what _humans_ can do when left unchecked. GDI taught me that well. As for my desires… I want what most desire I think… a peaceful world, one where weapons are no longer needed."

Saito shrugged his shoulders as he continued at a sedate pace, with space and time itself warped here and himself being railroaded, there was no point in running. He'd arrive whenever his observer decided it was time for him to do so, not a moment before and not a moment after.

"Yeah, I'm more machine than man but I don't mind. You see, I have perfect memory as a result of it. I remember what happens when you don't have enough strength to crush your foes, at the same time I will never forget what it is that I'm fighting for." The memory of the despair consuming the crowd when Reconquista was about to execute the innocent rose to the surface, as did the jubilation when he turned the tables.

" _With your power you could rule. Instead you insist on being a slave."_

"Ay, you misunderstand. The lack of a desire to rule is not the same as the intention to be a slave. I have spent nearly my entire life fighting against an oppressive regime, I will not be responsible for the rise of another. Yes, I am assisting the people of Albion to rise up and tear down their oppressors, but no, that does not mean I will condone their ascension to tyranny. I am a soldier of NOD, we oppose tyrants and despots wherever they are to be found, if the revolution loses their way I _will_ bring them back into line… one way or another."

" _So you'd betray your own people for your ideals."_

"Bzzt. That is incorrect, I betray no one. If they do travel down that path then they are the ones betraying themselves. I am a weapon of the downtrodden, if the positions change, isn't it natural that my wielders and my targets switch around as well?"

" _Such arrogance, you think yourself above everyone else. Your actions breed only chaos. You claim to be a guardian, but who watches you?"_

"Lady Tiffa will. I have given her override authority, should I ever raise a hand against her I will shut down. Should she see that I have been compromised, I will shut down. Yes, the network isn't completely up yet but it will be soon, once that happens, HQ will have a constant feed of all marked activities for her to oversee. Nothing can be hidden and a kinder person than her I have never met. Even if I lose sight of myself, she will ensure I never turn traitor."

" _So you hand an elf the keys to the kingdom. All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. She is no exception. In the end, she'll tear down everything you've built in a mad lust for power."_

Saito snorted in disbelief. "Well you've clearly never met her then."

" _Even if she is incorruptible, she is but of flesh and faith with so many weaknesses. She will become a pawn of others."_

"And just what do you think I've been trying to prevent by keeping Westwood hidden? I'm not a fool, her power isn't normal, one way or another, she will end up in the public eye, that's just how these things tend to go. By the time that happens I intend to have an assassination network set up, anyone who tries getting to her won't end up with anything. They will just end."

" _Where do you derive such confidence from."_ The voice asked again after a pause, the accusatory tone had disappeared, leaving behind only a curious one.

"I'm a bloody cyborg responsible for the lives of god knows how many people. It was that way back on Earth and it is so now. The revolution is young, untested, they are nothing more than civilians with guns and no matter how powerful their weapons, they aren't trained soldiers. Any mistake I make will cost them their lives. Even when I don't people will still die, no such thing as a flawless victory. I do not have the luxury of self-doubt, it is disrespectful to those who died believing in my leadership. Well, obviously suicidal overconfidence is bad and unnecessary risks are to be avoided."

Silence greeted Saito as he said his piece, whatever he said clearly satisfied his observer as he came to the end of the path. Pushing the door open, he entered into a dining hall with the furniture shifted to the side to make room for a duelling arena.

A copy of him stood at the other end of the room.

"Figured this might happen when you were using my voice." Saito called out as a greeting, drawing a nod from his other.

" _Indeed. I have peered into your mind and discerned your will. But. There are still some things that can only be learnt this way."_

"So we do this man to man." Saito stated.

" _Indeed."_

With that, both inquisitors rushed at the other fists at the ready.

-line break

Wales stumbled back and dropped to one knee after taking a kick to his midsection. Spitting out a wad of blood, he retaliated with a barrage of wind arrows, forcing his doppelganger to halt casting or be skewered.

The prince took the brief respite to catch his breath and tried coming up with a new strategy to beat his copy. Thus far everything he'd tried had come up short, they were just too evenly matched for any of his usual tactics to work.

Still wearing that mocking smile, his copy rushed him with a blade of wind forming around his wand. Unleashing a rapid series of thrusts, Wales was again forced back by the intensity of the onslaught and sustained several cuts where his defence failed him.

Biting back a scream when the copy lashed out with a sudden kick into his side, aggravating the arrow wound from before and sent a lance of pain through his entire being. Allowing himself to fall in the direction of the kick, he did his best to reduce the damage and used a wind spell to cause a mini explosion between them, forcing them apart.

Staggering to his feet, Wales grit his teeth and refused to allow his copy the satisfaction of seeing how much pain that kick had caused. "What do you want from me? You've had more than enough chances to finish me off by now."

" _What do I want? What do_ _ **you**_ _want?"_ The copy spoke in a disappointed tone while shaking his head.

" _You're even more disappointing than I thought. Why do you insist on standing again and again and again when you are so unwilling to win?"_

"Speak reason or don't speak at all imposter!" Wales shouted at his copy, unable to comprehend his words. Unwilling to win? He was doing everything he could to win. The one not trying to end the battle was his copy.

" _Reason? You're the unreasonable one. You keep getting back up every time I knock you down but you aren't willing to actually beat me. Every time you attack I see the doubt in your eyes, before you even try you're already half convinced you're going to fail. How do you intend to beat me when you don't even believe that you can?"_

The copy pushed on while the prince was still caught off guard by his words. _"Don't feed me the whole I can't commit because I don't know what he can do routine. I_ _ **am**_ _you and we both know those are nothing more than excuses."_

"So what you expect me to just blindly commit and hope for the best?" Wales snorted in derision and summoned a vortex of wind around him, launching wind blades at random to harass the copy.

" _Yes, as a matter of fact I do."_ Shrugging off the assault with a shield, a hyper-focused drill of wind was his answer and Wales just barely dodged out of the way as the spell tore through his vortex and shredded his side in the process.

" _You've already concluded that that was the best choice of actions yet you continue to doubt yourself, never allowing yourself to commit. Any wonder why you disappoint everyone you meet? Even you don't believe in yourself, let alone everyone else."_

"I am not a disappointment." Wales bit out through gritted teeth.

" _Prove it."_

This was an unwinnable battle and the prince knew it. His copy could do everything he could and knew his every move before he even thought it. Continuing this fight in the chamber would only end with his death.

Maybe he could fall back to the corridor outside, set up a kill zone where he could hit the copy from behind… but what if he knew it was coming? What if the clone already had a strategy for that occasion? What if… what if… what if…

A bitter look crossed the copy's face. _"Unbelievable. You manage to disappoint even when it comes to being a coward. Can't even run away right… we're done here. Run along now little prince, the door to your right outside the chamber will take you back to the surface."_

Lowering his wand, the copy favoured the original with a look of pity. _"You are not fit to be king. It's for the best that Reconquista wins if you are the future Albion has to look forwards to. I don't even know what Henrietta sees in us anymore, whatever it was died a long time ago… if it even existed in the first place. Go. Get out of here. We're through."_

Something in Wales snapped as the mocking tone penetrated into his skull. White hot rage burned inside him as every scrap of anger that had been building up for the past few days erupted in glorious violence.

Maybe he was playing into whatever the copy was up to, maybe he just signed his own death warrant. He didn't care, the only thing that mattered to him was beating the living shit out of the miserable imposter who dared to steal his face.

"You know what? Maybe you're right, maybe I am too damned cautious for my own good. Well, I am done holding back. Now… CHOKE ON MY FIST!" With a roar, Wales rushed at his copy wind surging around his clenched fists.

Adrenaline surging through him numbed the pain from his wounds and the berserk prince barrelled through an incoming storm of wind arrows without slowing down. Assuming he survived, he'd definitely feel it in the morning but right now the only thing that mattered was wiping the smirk of the other's face.

" _Good. GOOD! Show me what you're made of!"_ The copy howled with insane laughter and ceased his spellcasting, meeting Wales with a charge of his own.

There was no finesse to their battle, no carefully planned tactics, no feats of skill. It was a simple fistfight between two individuals who staked everything on the line and absolutely refused to lose.

"I am the fucking crown prince. I will not be insulted by ANYONE! Least of all myself!" Slamming his fist into his copy's face, Wales felt a morbid sense of satisfaction when he saw blood fly from his mirror image.

" _Crown prince eh? How do you expect to lead when you're ruled by fear?"_ Ramming a knee into Wales' stomach and following up with a vicious right hook, the copy received an armoured boot to the face for his trouble.

"I! AM! NOT! RULED! BY! FEAR!" Punctuating each word with a punch, Wales begin to force the doppelganger back.

" _AREN'T YOU!? YOU HESITATE, YOU ALWAYS HESITATE WHEN IT MATTERS MOST! RUNNING IS ALL YOU'RE GOOD AT! ALWAYS PUSHING THINGS OFF! IT'S WHY YOU HURT YOUR RETAINERS! IT'S WHY YOU HURT HENRIETTA!"_

Grabbing his lapels, Wales pulled the copy in close and headbutted him to shut him up. "DON'T YOU FUCKING SPEAK HER NAME IMPOSTER!"

" _IMPOSTER!? IMPOSTER!? I_ _ **AM**_ _YOU! I KNOW YOU! EVEN IF YOU LEAVE YOU'LL JUST END UP HURTING HER AGAIN BY REJECTING HER OUT OF COWARDICE! THEN YOU'LL DIE IN A LAST STAND AGAINST RECONQUISTA! HOW DOES THAT HELP ANYONE!?"_ Shouting at the top of his lungs, the copy returned the headbutt and started swinging wildly with his fists.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN! I **WILL** BEAT YOU! THEN, I'M GOING TO DESTROY RECONQUISTA! AFTER THAT, I **WILL** MARRY HENRIETTA!"

Wales roared and dumped all his willpower into his right fist, increasing the strength of his punch to absurd levels. He'd be out of magic after this attack and if he missed or failed he'd be screwed. 'If I fail… no. I will not miss. I will succeed. I will beat him!'

Half blind from the blood and sweat in his eyes, Wales swung with everything he had and just before he connected, he saw his clone smile in relief.

Once the fist made contact, the magic holding the winds in place destabilised and the resulting explosion devastated the room. Wales went tumbling across the floor, eventually coming a painful stop when he collided with the far wall.

Staring up with pain filled eyes, he noticed that the copy had crashed into the giant mirror and while it didn't shatter, a spiderweb of cracks spread out from where the body was embedded.

" _Heh… he… heh… well done. Finally found your resolve eh? About damn *cough* time."_ The copy's form flickered and begun to fade into nothingness.

" _You pass… if only barely. Take up the sword and *cough* go meet your destiny"_

"This… was a test?"

" _The world is about to change, a crisis beyond anything you can imagine is coming and Albion *cough* Albion will need a strong ruler to weather the storm. A king must be resolute, walk tall and never look back, a leader can't lead if he isn't focused on the path ahead."_

"Yeah, I'm done letting doubt and fear rule me." Wales rose to his feet as his body screamed in protest. Dragging his battered form to the sword, he wrapped both hands around the hilt, this time there was no shock and the sword slid out of the ground smoothly.

Power surged through him and Wales let out a gasp when the pain left his body, his wounds knit together and left only unbroken flesh behind. "Caledfwylch…"

" _It's up to you to remain worthy of that blade, no more excuses, no more second guessing and… if you ever hurt her I'll be back to end you."_

"Get in line. I have first crack at myself."

" _Heh. One last thing, your missing cousin? Her familiar is here to retrieve you. Farewell my other self."_ With one last smile, the copy faded into nothingness and the mirror shattered completely.

-line break

" _What an unreasonable existence. Kuh! Why am I losing!? You haven't overcome any of the darkness in your heart, I shouldn't be weakening!"_ Saito's clone put up a valiant defence but more and more of the inquisitor's blows were finding their way through his guard.

"You, are a copy of me from five minutes ago. That is why you're losing."

" _What does that have to do with anything? I should be just as powerful as you are!"_

Ramming his knee into his copy's midsection repeatedly, Saito delivered an uppercut and followed up with a roundhouse kick that send the copy skidding across the floor. A feral grin was on full display as he relished in the combat. "I don't know what you mean by overcoming the darkness in my heart or what not, I only know this. The most reliable path to victory is just to be better than your opponent."

" _But you're not better than me!"_

"All due respect, you are wrong. You haven't grown at all since we began. I on the other hand have been learning constantly. You see, you're completely stagnant but I have been improving with every blow we trade. I don't have to be the best, I just need to be better than the me from before."

Saito let out a peal of laughter born from the sheer exhilaration he felt. "You didn't weaken, if we both started at 1, you are still a 1 but I am at 1.01 now. Yes the difference isn't astounding but the longer we fight the closer I get to victory."

"… _What an unreasonable way of doing things. Your worldview is warped."_ The disbelief was evident in his copy's voice.

"So I've been told." Shrugging in response, he waited for the copy to stand again before sliding back into a fighting stance.

"In any case thank you. It's not everyday you get to fight yourself. I'm stronger than I was before and it's all thanks to you."

The copy shook his head and wrung his hands in exasperation. _"You're giving me too much credit, really I'm just here to test the resolve of all those seeking the power of kings. But you have resolve in spades."_

"Seeking power? I… have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just looking for prince Wales. It's not my fault the floor disappeared under me and those bloody golems chased me in here." Saito said honestly and drew another disbelieving stare from the copy.

" _Unbelievable, you broke into the inner sanctum and passed the trial without even meaning to? Truly you are an unreasonable individual."_ Shaking his head and letting his arms fall to the side, the copy indicated that it no longer wished to fight.

Reluctantly lowering his fists as well, Saito didn't have to wait long for something to happen. Bands of light appeared and began to wrap around thin air, when they faded an elaborately designed gauntlet was left floating in place.

" _Take it, Aegis is yours now. I only ask that you use it to support the prince. Even if you remain intent on tearing down the monarchy, please, grant the prince your strength for now. A storm is coming and he cannot prevail alone."_

"I did promise Charles I'd give him a chance and that is all I can guarantee." The inquisitor slipped his left hand into the gauntlet and felt magic surge through him along with the knowledge on how to use it.

Testing it out, he willed the gauntlet to change and change it did. First warping into a buckler, then a tower shield and lastly a circular greatshield with spinning chainsaw blades at the edges, Saito returned it to its gauntlet form and nodded appreciatively. The weight never changed no matter what form it took and he knew that it could reform into any shield his imagination could come up with no matter how impossible it was.

'Aww yes. This is going to be my new favourite toy.'

" _It will have to do. Protect your master, protect Albion. And now, farewell."_ Fading away like a ghost that was never there, the inquisitor was left alone in the room.

"Hmmph, didn't need you to state the obvious. I'll protect Tiffa even if it kills me."

There was a rumbling and the far wall collapsed, opening up into another chamber. A man in tattered clothes vaguely reminiscent of a noble's attire stood at the centre of it. Blonde hair waved in a non-existent breeze and steely blue eyes met his own.

"Prince Wales?"

"Who's asking?"

"A friend… of a friend. Charles is still looking for you, you know."

"I see… I will have to apologise later. You wouldn't happen to be a familiar would you?"

"…As a matter of fact I am… why?"

"Your master happens to be my cousin, I'd like to speak to them."

"I was unaware my master happened to be royalty. Forgive me if I don't buy your words, even if my master is your cousin, which I doubt, why should I bring you to them? For all I know you could be intending to assassinate them. Your father's actions do not leave me with a lot of confidence."

"I am not my father. I only desire to see her safe, Reconquista knows of her existence and general location. They will not stop until she's dead, I just want to keep my family safe."

Saito kept his face blank but was frowning on the inside. If Reconquista already knew of the existence of Westwood if not the exact location, no amount of stealth technology would keep them from being discovered for long. He'd have to move the timetable up.

"Alright. Say I believe you, I bring you to her, what then? What is your intent?"

"I want her kept safe. If her location is secure I will leave and return to fighting Reconquista. If she isn't safe, I intend to bring her with me to Newcastle, the royalists will be able to protect her there. You have my word that I will do her no harm."

"The royalists? You are aware that you are losing right? Your ranks have been infiltrated by Reconquista spies and the situation is bad enough that only your personal guard can be trusted. The monarchy is finished."

Wales narrowed his eyes at the familiar, a slight edge bled into his tone. "You would have me give up then? I cannot. If Reconquista wins Albion will burn when they try to invade the rest of the world. Even if I might die, I have to fight. And I will win. I won't allow them to destroy everything. Maybe the monarchy will end with me, maybe the crown will go to your master instead, I don't know, I don't care. Right now the only thing that matters is crushing Reconquista and returning peace to the people. I won't ask you to believe in me, but I won't allow you to mock my ideals."

"Say you win, say you defeat Reconquista, are you going to continue your father's reign of tyranny? The people have suffered under his rule long enough, if nothing is done they will rise up again."

"Of course not! People are what make a kingdom, not any one king or noble. It will take time but I will see a new Albion rise from the pit it is sinking into. Reconquista is a symptom of the real problem, that of too much power concentrated in the hands of the few without any oversight. I will forge a new nation where this can never happen again. I will not have my people living in fear of some corrupt noble destroying their lives anymore."

As though to punctuate that statement, there was a bright flash and when the light faded they were both back aboveground at the entrance to the never-ending tunnel. The wound in the earth had closed and the blast crater was only a few feet deep now. All signs of the tunnel had vanished completely.

Saito raised his arm to shade his eyes as he readjusted to the bright sunlight. He'd heard enough from Wales to make a judgement.

"I have a proposal for you if you are willing to listen. Charles is helping me out with it but he won't commit more without your instructions. It mainly involves…"

* * *

Authors notes: Writer's block physically hurts. This chapter was incredibly hard to get out. In other news, C&C rivals just got announced. This one hurts the soul. EA killed the franchise with C&C 4 and now they want to milk its corpse for everything left.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 8: Undercover

"And what have learnt today?"

"Muuu… gambling is bad and I shouldn't enter a casino again." Louise answered in a crestfallen tone, eyes firmly fixed on the ground. Her attempt to increase their mission funds had ended abysmally and she had lost all the money Henrietta had entrusted to them.

"I was gonna go for don't play unless you know your opponent isn't cheating but that works too." Saito shrugged and waited for the few seconds it took for the words to sink in. Predictably, his vertically challenged partner exploded on the spot.

"Cheating… CHEATING!? HE WAS CHEATING!? You… you… WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!?" Stamping her foot on the floor, she shouted at her familiar who was busy plugging his ears to avoid hearing damage.

"I thought you'd have realised it after the first few times partner. Seriously, who pulls a straight flush, a full house and a royal flush in a row. Nah, he was cheating, I saw him switch out the cards for the ones inside his sleeves."

"GRRR! That settles it, I'm going to… get out of my way!" Louise ordered when Saito refused to allow her to pass.

"Nothing much you can do now partner, the casino was in on it. You complain and they'll just laugh you out of the place for being a sore loser. It is partly your fault for not quitting while you were ahead."

"What!? They can't do that! Can they?"

"In theory no. But if you can grease enough hands… well, not even the nobility can do anything about it since the establishment is backed up by other nobles and officials."

"WHAT!? We need to report it to the murghffh!" She was cut off when Saito slapped a hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Do remember why we're here. Shouting our benefactor's name for the whole world to hear doesn't help us in the least. Leave them be for now, we don't want to spook them before we're ready." Seeing her nod in understanding, Saito lowered his hand.

"But we can't just let them get away with it! Just think of how many they must have swindled!"

"Quite a few I imagine but nowhere near as many as you're thinking. They are first and foremost a business, cheat too much and no one will come anymore since they can't win, also enough complaints will bring the wrong sort of attention."

Shrugging, Saito pulled out his coin bag which had more than tripled in size. "If it makes you feel better I won over fifty times the amount you lost."

"How!?"

"Roulette."

"The ball and spinning wheel one? B-but that's just a game of luck! How did you even guess right?"

"Who said anything about guessing?"

"You cheated!?"

"Of course not! I did no such thing! I'm sad to see that you have so little faith in me." Saito feigned hurt before continuing when Louise's eye started twitching.

"It's not my fault the ball is moving so slowly I can easily see where it's going to land in. Really, there's no law or rule against being good. Ah well, got to give them some time to forget my face before I go back and bankrupt them… say, how would like to own the casino?"

"You're unbelievable. Stupid familiar making me worried for nothing… at least now we don't need to find a job!" Louise's mind went off to fantasy land immediately as she began debating which of the high-class inns she should relax in.

"Ahahahah… no." Her thought processes came to a screeching halt as the words ripped her from her fantasy.

"What do you mean no?" Her betrayed tone only made Saito's grin grow.

"We _are_ going to find a job. We're supposed to be looking for evidence on corrupt nobles and keeping an eye out for any rumours about Albion remember? That's not something you can do by just relaxing in a hotel room somewhere." Seeing his partner's rapid mood swing from overjoyed back to depressed, Saito sniggered.

"Chin up partner, you've already survived my training. It's not going to be worse than that. So relax and just enjoy the change of pace."

-line break

"You were saying?"

"…I was wrong and I immediately regret this decision."

Louise and Saito were staring up at a mountain of a man and wondering if it was too late to turn back. Tall and muscled, he would be the very definition of the word 'manliness' except for a few very glaring, very painful flaws.

Very shiny hair, fancy moustache, a tight purple singlet exposing way too much for their sanity and reeking of perfume. Saito briefly considered eating his gun and being done with it, oh sure he'd fought mutants in the tiberium infested wastelands far larger than this… man… but none of them were quite so disturbing.

"Oh you poor souls! Jessica has told me all about your plight of course I'll help! Room and board in exchange for some light work will be fine I think. And I'll pay a good salary too!" The flamboyant man did a different pose with each sentence before winking at the duo at the end.

Resisting the urge to scream and tear out his own eyes, Saito did his best to remain stoic in the face of this abomination. "O-of course, thank you for your offer. We won't be any trouble and we can start work immediately."

Acutely aware of the death glare Louise was stabbing into his back while cowering there, a pretty large part of Saito was siding with her on how discretion was the better part of valour and it was time for a strategic redeployment.

Unfortunately for them both, the side of him dedicated to duty won out in the end. It was the off season right now and this was the only place willing to accept new hires with zero experience. If he was alone it'd probably be slightly easier but Louise's pink hair was a dead giveaway that she wasn't your regular peasant.

It didn't help that pink hair was effectively synonymous with the Heavy Wind and nobody wanted anything to do with anyone related to her lest the duchess come knocking.

Saito had initially assumed he struck gold at the charming fairies inn when the waitress he'd spoken to had been receptive to their 'plight'. Although he wasn't quite sure exactly how much she bought the story of them being refugees from Albion given her somewhat disturbing smile when she left to fetch the owner.

Now though he was having second, third and fourth thoughts while the fifth was seeking a second opinion on which was faster, eating a gun or a grenade. Drawing upon reserves of will he didn't even know he had, Saito fought down the urge to run away screaming and listened as their jobs were outlined.

Louise would be working as a waitress while he'd be helping out in the kitchen with any physically demanding tasks. Mostly just taking out the trash and carrying around whatever the cooks needed. Simple enough, Louise needing to interact with the customers was a little worrying but hey, at least she wasn't cooking, what could possibly go wrong?

-line break

Saito resisted the urge to repeatedly introduce his head to the wall as the sound of shouting came from outside the kitchen followed by the sound of a fist meeting a face and a long string of curses after that.

"I apologise for my idiot sister's actions, you can… you can just dock my pay for any damages." Saito bowed to Jessica and apologised profusely, in the four days they'd been here this was already a common sight.

"Ah its no biggie, dad thinks that her actions are just what the inn needs to liven up the place. Those perverted old coots had it coming anyway, and besides if we did dock your pay for all that you'd probably end up working here for life to pay off the debt."

"I am really sorry. I'll… do my best to talk some sense into her later."

"It's fine really! Although, this would be a lot easier if you just let her work in the kitchen…"

"NO!" Saito coughed sheepishly as his outburst attracted the attention of everyone nearby.

"Uh I mean, she can't cook. At all. If you value the kitchen at all, you will never allow her to step foot inside. Bad things happen when she does." Saito whispered in a low voice as several images of blood, bone and writhing tentacles flashed through his mind before he could repress those memories. A lot of screaming had been involved and he'd much rather fight the entire brotherhood than deal with that again.

"Oh come on, she can't be that bad." Jessica stated in a disbelieving tone.

"Trust me she is." Saito shuddered one more time as he successfully shoved those memories into the dark corner where they belonged. Grabbing a glass of water, he began to drain it to calm his nerves.

"Huh… okay then, so… Mr Saito, are you her lover or something?" Executing a perfect spit take, he managed to get out a denial through the sputtering.

"Wha!? What the heck would make you think that!? She's my younger sister!"

Jessica deadpanned and raised an eyebrow. "You know that you're not fooling anyone right? Little miss pinkie outside is definitely a noble and you… well, I can't quite place you but you're definitely not related to her. I mean, you two look nothing alike! So? What's the real story? Were you secret lovers on the run from her family to be together? Tell me tell me tell me!"

Raising his arms to placate the over excited Jessica, Saito unconsciously took a step back when she closed in, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "C-calm down, its nothing like that. I really am her older brother, I'm just adopted."

Seeing the shine in her eyes intensify, Saito quickly added on to that statement. "There is absolutely nothing of the sort between us. Really! I'm just here to keep my-"

He paused when the sound of a slap and more angry cursing came from outside. "Haaah… very immature sister from getting into trouble. For what it's worth, I really am sorry about her actions."

"Hmm… you don't seem to be lying about not being her lover…" Jessica pouted as she continued trying to puzzle out the nature of their relationship.

"But. The sibling angle doesn't quite fit either. You don't act noble enough for someone who's supposedly been adopted by a noble family. Are you her body guard then?"

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" Saito sighed when he saw her head bobbing fast enough to leave afterimages.

"Haa… alright, so maybe I am her body guard." Saito said before returning his attention to his work and speaking no more.

"…That's it? Come on, there must be more to the story than that! Why are you even out here? Missy has clearly never worked before so why leave your lives behind like that?"

Saito remained silent while coming up with a new cover story on the fly. Telling the truth was a definite no but given what he knew of the nobility, he was certain he could come up with something believable. Whether Louise would be able to adapt to it on the other hand… he'd cross that bridge when he got there.

"She's been betrothed to a much older viscount who happens to have a particular… taste… in women. She… well, you've seen how she is, ran away the day after finding out and dragged me along. Of course, she completely forgot to pack any supplies which led us here. Thanks for getting us hired by the way… even if she's a pain in the neck."

"Hmm… is that so? Something's still missing though…" The doubt in her eyes hadn't lessened in the least despite his performance.

"Ah if you'll excuse me, I should go calm her down now before she kills someone. Excuse me." Saito hightailed it out of the kitchen before Jessica could question any further. Best leave before he dug himself in too deep, the girl was sharper than he gave her credit for.

There was talent there and if nurtured would have her grow into an excellent intelligence officer. How Scarron ever had a daughter like that he'd never know…

Adopted maybe.

-line break

Slipping into a back alley, Saito removed the facial prosthesis and discarded his worn trench coat in a nearby bin. Ensuring the heavy sack of gold coins was securely fastened around his waist, he vanished into the shadows and waited for his pursuers to catch up.

Unless his map was wrong, this should be a dead end, a series of crisscrossing alleys that led nowhere and the perfect place for an ambush.

"Damnit, where the hell did that drunk go!? Fuck. The boss will have our hides if we don't get him." A panicked voice announced the arrival of Saito's targets. Five thugs rounded the corner with swords drawn.

"Shut up you idiot, you want to scare him off again? Son of a bitch is here somewhere, this is a dead end, nowhere for him to go." The apparent leader rebuked his panicked underling and raised his torch high.

"Split up and hunt him down. Five gold pieces to whoever brings him to me, another five if he's still alive. I'll remain here so he doesn't escape… don't let him slip by you." A chorus of acknowledgements sounded off as they split up to begin the hunt.

The moon was obscured by the clouds and the only light in the area came from their torches, something that brought out a wicked smile on Saito's face. "Yo derf, you wanted some action, right?"

"You're an arse user, I wanted glorious battle, not be used to hunt rats… ah nuts, I'll take whatever I can get." Derflinger's annoyed reply was loud enough to attract the attention of the thug Saito had been shadowing.

"Wh-who's ther- urk!" His question was cut off when enchanted steel opened up a second mouth where his throat was. Catching the flailing body and gently lowering it to the ground so it wouldn't make a sound, Saito flipped the body over onto its front and left the corpse where it lay.

Extinguishing the torch before it could start a blaze, Saito noted that the filth strewn around the alley did an excellent job of camouflaging the expanding crimson pool. Satisfied with his handiwork, he retreated into the shadows to stalk his next prey. "Four left."

In the darkness they never stood a chance. The next two fell without much effort on his part at all. The first was so confident in his appearance scaring off any citizens who didn't want a beating that he never even noticed the black-haired man walking up to him.

That lack of awareness was promptly rectified when Saito buried Derflinger in his chest and sunk it all the way to the hilt. As his eyes widened from the shock and pain, Saito slid his sword free with a wet squelching sound.

He was dead before he touched the ground.

The next had virtually zero sense of urgency and had elected to allow his 'comrades' to do the bulk of the heavy lifting while just kicking back and collecting his pay once everything was over with. The former commando nearly snorted with disbelief when he found the thug whistling a jaunty tune while pissing against a wall.

Such carelessness would have had him drummed out of the program followed by a court martial. Death tolls were high enough without factoring in suicidal overconfidence and there was no room for anyone willing to jeopardize the mission with such carelessness.

Wrapping his free hand around the man's mouth to stifle his cries, Saito drew a red line across the throat and waited for the struggles to cease before lowering the body.

Honestly, he'd feel bad about such a one-sided slaughter except for the fact that these were enemies of the state. As soon as the words Reconquista and payroll came up, they were dead men walking.

The bugs he left behind in the casino days before had paid off in full. A Reconquista agent would be arriving in the morning to pick up the proceeds and spirit them overseas. The familiar had elected to relieve them of their funds a day early by breaking the bank at roulette.

Management did not take kindly to that and sent their 'best' after the lucky 'drunk'. Saito snickered as he approached number four, the anxious man from the start and now having a full blown nervous breakdown.

"John? Greg? Hello? Is anyone there? Guys!?" Waving his torch around as though to ward off evil, all the flickering fire light did was play havoc with the shadows and worsening his panic. The quiet was eating at him, something was seriously wrong and he knew it.

His gut was telling him to screw the job and run. The oppressive darkness, the obscured moon, it reminded him far too much of the horror stories he'd been told as a child. About how the elves, demons of the night, would torment their human prey by stranding them inside the forest on a moonless night and hunt them down for sport one at a time.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted the trench coat their target was supposed to be wearing lying in a bin. Cautiously approaching it, he lifted it up for inspection and found nothing off about it, a perfectly normal piece of clothing worn by the masses.

What was under it however scared the living daylights out of him. a rubbery skin coloured object lay in the trash. A closer look revealed the 'face' of the man they were supposed to be chasing.

Dropping the mask, he fell on his ass and backed away in a panic. His torch fell into a pool of stagnant water and extinguished with a hiss. "No. Nononono! This can't be real. This can't be happening! Demon! He's a demon!"

Coming to an abrupt halt when his back hit a pair of legs, he slowly raised his head and found himself staring into a face shrouded in shadow. His scream died in his throat when Saito buried Derflinger right between the eyes.

"Set em up and I'll knock em down. Only one left… this shouldn't take long."

Sheathing the sword and returning to the exit, he found the leader standing there impatiently. "What's taking so long? It's just one bloody drunk. They cannot possibly be this incompetent."

Saito picked up a pebble and hurled it behind the thug, the resulting noise was deafening in the quiet and as expected, drew attention to it. With his back turned, Saito was free to ghost up to the leader and knock him out with one blow.

-line break

Ice cold water being dumped over his head caused the Gaius to wake up sputtering. Cursing and trying to move, he found himself securely tied up and sitting down in an empty room. More importantly, his wand was missing.

"Good evening traitor, I have questions and for your sake you better have the right answers." A disembodied voice addressed him in a condescending tone.

"First of all, who hired you?"

"FUCK YOU!" Gaius roared at the top of his lungs in a show of bravado. He immediately regretted that decision when a throwing knife flew out of the shadows and buried itself in the ground inches away from his groin.

"Bzzt, wrong answer. You only get so many of those. I already know you work for Reconquista, the others were hired muscle but you… oh no, you are so much more than that. Piece of advice, if you're going to work undercover don't carry a copy of your orders with you… burn those as soon as you understand them."

"W-what do you want!?" There was a hint of fear in his voice now.

"I want answers, shoot straight with me and I'll release you… or don't and we'll see just how many knives I can put in you before you bleed out. Make no mistake, I don't need you, I can always get my answers elsewhere, you are just… convenient."

"W-what do you want to know."

"Let's start with what we both know shall we? Your name is Gaius Bartholomew III, a minor noble from Albion without much to his name and in service to Reconquista for career advancement. Your mission here in Tristain is to serve as a scout of sorts, identify possible converts and mark troublesome individuals for termination."

A nod.

"Good, good, now that we're on the same page, who do you report to. I understand that the casino is also run by Reconquista sympathizers but your boss is someone else, who is he?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just heeek!" Gaius denial was cut off when a second knife buried itself into the wall behind him, leaving a cut along his cheek.

"Wrong answer again. Just so you know, I'm actually terrible at aiming. I was going for your arm but… I missed. Let's not put my aim to the test again, shall we? It would be a shame if I hit something important."

"Okay! Okay! He's a Tristainian noble! That's all I know I swear!"

"I need more details than that. Maybe a bit of pain will jog your memory?"

"H-he has silver hair! That's all I know! I've only met him once! H-he uses dead drops to send down orders. A-and he uses lightning magic!" Gaius stammered out while trying to back away, relief suffused his being when no additional knives came flying.

'Silver hair and lightning magic? Can't think of anyone who fits the mould right now. Maybe Agnes or the princess will have a better idea when I report back.' Maintaining a neutral tone, he resumed his questioning.

"Very well… you pass on that. Next question, the agent coming to collect the money in the morning, who is it?"

"It's the tax collector, h-he will be picking up the money and adding it to the extra taxes he's already collected before sending all of it to Albion."

"Extra taxes?"

Gaius nodded eagerly in an attempt to convince his interrogator of the truthfulness of his words. No sense in dying for a cause he didn't believe in. "Yes! He over taxes the peasants to increase resentment against the princess. Once they revolt, it'll be easy for Reconquista to take Tristain."

'Damn, so the sabotage extends that far?' Pushing the worry out of his voice, Saito moved on to the last question, one he really dreaded the answer to.

"So it is. Last question, who else is involved. I want the names of everyone who's part of your little club. Every sympathiser, every agent, every traitor."

"…I don't know, I swear! The higherups keep things on a need to know basis and I don't need to know." Gaius pleaded and bit back a cry when a knife buried itself in his thigh.

"Not good enough. I need more. If this is all you can offer I'll be using you as target practice now." Allowing some of his frustration to slip into his voice, Saito fingered the hilt of another knife.

"I DON'T KNOW DAMNIT! I don't know…" Gaius shouted out before degenerating into sobs.

"T-they're everywhere, in the government, the military, the businesses… please, I've told you all I know… let me go."

Saito found no deception in his words and resisted the urge to slam his fist into the wall. If the conspiracy ran deeper than just a few nobles lining their pockets while preventing aid from being sent to Albion he needed a lot more to work with.

Striding over to Gaius, Saito loped his head off with one swing. "Consider yourself released from this world."

-line break

Stashing Derflinger and the sack of gold at the safehouse prepared by the princess, Saito made his way back to the inn and found Scarron waiting for him outside, an unreadable expression plastered on his face. "Bit late for a walk isn't it?"

"I needed some fresh air." Saito replied cheerfully as he buried his hands in his pockets, reaching for his knuckledusters. 'In the businesses, huh?'

"Fresh air? Well, I suppose that's as good a reason as any. How was the air like near the casino anyways? I need a break myself" The flamboyant man responded in an equally cheerful tone. All around them, hooded figures in black materialised out of the shadows, silver daggers glinting in the moonlight.

"Friends of yours boss? Didn't realise there'd be a welcoming committee." Saito coolly regarded the opposition and felt the boost from the gandalfr powers kick in.

"In a sense. I will have to ask that you come with us. The noble is with my daughter, nothing will happen to her." Left unsaid was the word 'yet' and they both knew it.

"And if I refuse?"

"Oh, I insist. You're under arrest." On cue, the cloaked assassins rushed Saito. Kicking it into combat mode, Saito felt the world slow down and stood at the ready.

Inhale, count to four, exhale.

Lashing out with twin blows, two assailants went flying when Saito buried his fists into their midsections and lifted them off the ground with brute force.

Pulling back and parrying the other incoming daggers, he delivered a series of kicks at blinding speed and felt bone crunch with each hit. Why they weren't going for lethal blows he didn't know, maybe it was about the money, maybe it was something else. In any case, if they wished to handicap themselves that badly that was their problem and something he would most definitely capitalise on.

Dodging the remainder and grabbing hold of one, Saito spun the man around and used him as a human shield, keeping the other daggers away before tossing him into a group of three, causing a pileup.

Taking advantage of the confusion he caused, Saito leapt backwards and created a space between them. "Why is it you Scarron? I thought we were friends."

"So did I. But you have proven yourself to be a problem. Surrender, there is no version of this that you come out on top. I promise that you will come to no harm, we're not barbarians." Scarron issued his ultimatum as more cloaked figures came out of the shadows.

"Could have fooled me. Why Scarron? Why work with them? What could they possibly have offered you to do this?"

"I could ask the same of you… you know, I really didn't want to believe that you were the agent. You never struck me as the sort but I guess looks can be deceiving no?"

"That's rich coming from you."

"Hahahaha… maybe so, don't make me do this Saito. Just hand over the money and come quietly."

"Not a chance in hell." Saito shrugged and raised his fists and readied for the next wave.

"Haah… disappointing. I'm sorry kid, but for queen and country I will take you down." Scarron sighed and drew a pistol and fired it at Saito. Twisting to the side to avoid the bullet, it lodged inside a tree and left a neat hole.

'What the hell was that!? I didn't hear anything at all. Magic silencers?' Crouching to present a smaller target, Saito kept his body tense and ready to dodge at the drop of a hat. His mind raced to make sense of it all while keeping track of all the others just in case they had silenced weapons as well.

'And since when did Reconquista answer to a queen? Only queen I know of is… shiiiiiiit. Don't tell me.' Feeling his brain crash and reboot, Saito rushed to test out his theory before the situation could escalate any further.

"Quick question, which queen are we talking about here?"

Holding fire for the moment, the mountain of a man continued aiming at Saito but nevertheless answered. "What kind of question is that? I answer to Queen Marianne of course."

"So… you're not Reconquista?"

"You… are you daft? We're trying to arrest you for being a Reconquista agent. Why the hell would we be working for those godless bastards?" Scarron replied unable to comprehend the question but seeing no harm in answering it.

Saito resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands and start screaming when he detected no falsehoods. Settling for a drawn out growl, he rose to his feet and removed the knuckles and slipped them back into his pocket. Raising his hands in the air once he was done to indicate surrender.

"You're surrendering?" The innkeeper asked dubiously, again incapable of reconciling the defiant Saito with the annoyed one.

"I'm just trying to show I mean no harm."

Scarron took a look around at the men still trying to pick themselves off the ground, those that weren't unconscious anyway. "You call _this_ meaning no harm?"

"Yes, but that was before you said you served her majesty. I thought _you_ were the agents from Reconquista. This battle is pointless, we're on the same side."

"Are we? I'm afraid I still have to arrest you, you can prove your innocence later."

"Haah… if you must. I won't fault you for doing your duty, if you can, contact Chevalier Agnes, she'll vouch for my identity… I'd appreciate if you did so discreetly, too many snakes in the grass." Saito sighed and allowed himself to be cuffed.

The weight of several sonic grenades hidden in his sleeves was a comforting one. If they proved to be Reconquista after all, he wasn't without options but there was no need for further violence against allies.

-line break

"Got to say, didn't think I'd ever see you in the dungeons. What? No loopholes to exploit this time?" Agnes' amused voice drew the attention of Saito and Scarron who had been making small talk.

"Oh sure, laugh it up chevalier, wasn't my fault _somebody_ forgot to mention that there might have been other undercover units in the area." Saito shot back without missing a beat.

"There wasn't supposed to be. Scarron, right? I thought the Scattered Bones had disbanded years ago." Agnes shrugged and addressed the innkeeper.

"We did, but after the King Henry's untimely passing and the rise of Reconquista, we've been reactivated to serve as her majesty's eyes and ears on the ground. Since you're here I guess Saito really is working for the princess."

"More of doing a favour really, still what's this about robbing a casino?"

"Casino's a front for collecting funds, I decided those funds would serve a better purpose in the hands of Tristain so I broke the bank. Moneys in the safehouse if you want to collect it now." Saito answered and drew a sigh from Scarron.

"Ay damn, we were hoping to use the money as bait to draw out the Reconquista agent. Guess that's no longer on the table."

"Not necessary, the man you're looking for is the tax collector Turenne. A little birdie informed me that he's been overtaxing the people trying to create resentment against the government while raising funds for Reconquista." Saito laid out everything he retrieved from Gaius including the documents he'd been carrying.

"…You certainly work fast. But a noble with silver hair and lightning magic? The only one that fits that description is Viscount Wardes, his loyalty is above questioning. Pretentious prick maybe but still one of the most dedicated and talented officers in the army." Agnes muttered as she processed the information.

"I'll look into it further when I get back to the princess. In the meantime, what do you intend to do about the traitor, I assume you have a plan of sorts? We don't have enough proof to arrest him since you took the money and collecting added taxes is a grey area especially with a potential war on the horizon. Without hard evidence that he's embezzling the money, there isn't much we can do."

Saito remained silent as he considered the options available. At the moment there were two possibly ways he could deal with it. The first was ye olde cloak and dagger, just disappear him when no one's looking. The second was get him to break some law in public and arrest him on the spot.

Having him disappear was the easier option but doing so could cause the other conspirators to go to ground, especially since Mott bit the big one not too long ago. An engineered public felony was harder to pull off but less likely to arouse suspicion, more so if he was arrested for being an idiot instead of corruption.

"I have something, the Scattered Bones are an assassination unit yes?"

"Hmph, we prefer the term trouble-shooters."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night… how good are your men are throwing stuff, like say… needles?"

"Needles? We're decent I suppose, but-"

"Good enough for me, here's what I have in mind…"

-line break

"Oi, how much longer must we do this? It's been almost a week and we don't have anything to show for it... other than some peasants not liking the nobility." Louise said as Saito helped reset up the tables for the incoming lunch crowd.

"Today's the last day actually. There's another unit ready to take over, all that's left is for us to entertain a special gues- speak of the devil and he shall appear." Saito cut himself off as a pompous noble burst through the door surrounded by several guards.

"Just as trashy as the last time I remembered it. Hmmph the service better be good or its double, no triple tax for wasting my time." Laughing as he scratched a small cut along the side of his neck.

"Oi Scarron! Where the hell are you you bastard!?"

"Coming! Ah Sir Turenne, how nice to see you again. Welcome to my humble shop!" Greeting the corrupt official in his usual flamboyant manner, Scarron betrayed none of the contempt he felt.

Wrinkling his nose, Turenne sneered and cast a disapproving gaze around the inn. "I got a flyer earlier, there's a special promotion going on now isn't there? Extra special service for valued customers? Hehe, if there's one thing this miserable dump gets right it's that the staff know how to dress gahahahaha!"

Disgust painted the faces of the waitresses as they backed away from the repulsive noble.

"My deepest apologies good sir, but we do not offer such services here. We have other customers to attend to." Scarron spoke up as he offered a plate of meat to him.

"Perhaps you'd enjoy our food instead?"

Grabbing a piece of the plate without a word of thanks, Turenne popped the morsel in his mouth and swallowed it instantly "Other customers eh? I'll take care of that. FILTHY PEASANTS, THIS INN HAS NOW BEEN RESERVED BY ME, HER MAJESTY'S GREAT TAX COLLECTOR! LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!"

When nobody moved despite his declaration, Turenne growled and signalled to his men. The guards drew their weapons and began smashing up the place, drawing screams from the customers and serving staff.

"Ah! You can't do that!" Putting up a show of trying to stop the guards, Scarron received a broken nose for his efforts and the remaining customers evacuated the inn en masse when the violence showed no signs of abating.

Once the last one had run out the door, Turenne turned back to the kneeling innkeeper with a smug smile plastered all over his pudgy face. "Would you look at that, no more customers. I guess you can afford to attend to me now?"

Saito held out an arm to stop Louise from charging the guy. "Don't do it partner."

"Why. Are. You. Stopping. Me?" Spitting out each word as a curse, her fingers were already inching towards her hidden wand.

"Just enjoy the show, look, it's starting."

Turenne stumbled slightly as his vision blurred at the edges and his sense of balance was thrown off. "Wha? What's with all the colours?"

Staggering and trying to remain on his feet, his vision was going haywire now and his sense of hearing had gone with it. The colours had become muted in places and blindingly over saturated in others. And the voices. Whispering in his ear, tones too low to make sense off but there all the same.

It was maddening, the world was going mad- had gone mad. He didn't understand why the others didn't seem to be affected, the world was shifting, shifting, always shifting.

Trying to support himself by pushing against a nearby pillar, his hand slid down the surface offering none. His wits had deserted him and he couldn't muster any strength, everything was so slow, so sluggish and… and… were there… were there always grinning skeletons in front of him?

Squinting his eyes to make sense of the blurry image before him, Turenne fought against the fog clouding his mind and terror filled him when his vision sharpened into hyper focus.

Decayed flesh clung to blackened bones, peeling off in places and becoming a thick black sludge that corroded the floor. Unholy crimson orbs burned where the eye sockets were and he recoiled in terror when he realised those weren't tiny balls of fire, they were actual eyes set aflame by hellfire promising eternal torment.

Dropping to his knees, he began to crawl away, seeking desperately to escape this living nightmare before the pitiful remnants of his strength deserted him as well.

The whispering was louder now, he heard the laughter of the damned, each one calling out to him, inviting him to join them in oblivion. Incomprehensible gibberish left his mouth, a cross between demented laughter, pleas for mercy and outright screams of terror.

Bumping into the legs of one of his confused guards, he looked up and for the first time noticed the pointy decayed ears on the skeletons. Elves. The demons were elves.

They had come for him at last. Memories of every horror story he'd ever been told about the inhuman abominations rose to the surface accompanied, by the fear that they had invoked in him. The primal emotion flooded what was left of his sane mind and his mouth opened wide in a soundless scream as tears stained his cheeks.

As one last act of defiance, Turenne drew his wand and tried to cast a spell to save himself. Despair and fear mounted when nothing happened, no fireball emerged to burn away the monsters. His mind was too shattered to muster up the willpower to cast even the simplest spell now.

Saito turned to Louise and shrugged. "See, everything under control."

"What… did you do to him?" Taking a few steps forward, she pinched her nose and looked on when it became evident Turenne had soiled himself.

"Nothing much, he's just trapped in a nightmare on his own making."

"E-explain y-yourself familiar."

"He's Reconquista. We need an excuse to arrest him. So he was poisoned with a mild hallucinogen before he arrived. The meat offered by Scarron? That had the second part of the plan. A quick acting drug that amplifies the first. Together, they will trap their victim in a waking nightmare made from their own worst fears that won't end for a few hours at least."

"T-that's horrible. I-isn't there another way? Not even... no one deserves this"

"I'm afraid not, none that would be as fast and effective as this one. Right now though, we just need to arrest him, he's tried using magic against a commoner… even if it is his guard and he's clearly mad, that's still a punishable offense." Saito said before sighing when Louise's expression didn't change.

"Go inside partner, get some… get some rest. You don't need to be here right now. I'll be with you shortly, okay?" The familiar turned his master around to block her view and gently nudged her in the direction of the door. Nodding dumbly, Louise obeyed and moved off with unsteady steps.

Returning his attention to the guards who were trying to move their employer while the insane man was still lashing out at them, Saito exchanged a glance with Scarron and sighed again. "No rest for the wicked indeed."

-line break

"Was it necessary? Missy is far too young for this." The sun had gone down and the prisoners had been escorted away by the royal guard earlier. Saito and Scarron had given their statements and thanks to Agnes had been pushed through without too many troublesome questions. Now it was just the two of them fixing up the destroyed inn.

"It needed to happen sometime, she wishes to be the princess's right hand. That means dirty business every now and then to keep the peace."

"Yes, but right now?"

"Why not, this is probably the best chance I'll have to show her the reality of her dreams. Not to mention the safest, Reconquista is a major threat however much the people don't seem to care about it. Ninety percent of Albion's fleet is in their control, that's a lot of firepower and they've already made their ambitions clear."

"Haaa… so it comes to war… again."

Saito shrugged and paused his sweeping to remove part of a broken a chair. "We're still trying to avert that worse case scenario. If we can root out the corruption and send aid to Albion before the resistance collapses, we have a good chance of containing the threat."

Scarron snorted upon hearing that analysis. "You are far too optimistic. The royalists are on their last legs, they'll fall long before we purge the traitors."

"Then we'll have to fight Reconquista with every thing we've got. No need to be so stressed about it right now, there's still time to stop that key from turning. And even if it does come to open war, Tristain still has her teeth… more so if the zone initiative is completed in time."

Silence reigned between them as each tried not to think too hard about the fact that their way of life might be upended in the near future. It was broken with Scarron's question. "Do you think we'll ever have peace, a true lasting peace? I disbanded the Scattered Bones years ago when Tristian no longer needed such monsters to survive, I swore on my wife's grave that I would never return to that life, that I'd provide a peaceful life for our daughter without watering the fields with the blood of others. Yet here I am, captain once more."

"I… can't answer that. I never found my peace back home but I do know this. The people here, they have a right to peace, it's why soldiers like us fight. I don't know what the future holds, but fighting to protect others? That's the hill I'm willing to die on."

* * *

Authors notes: Have rewritten this chapter three times and it still doesn't seem quite right to me but I can't put my finger on it. Been going on a wiki crawl to gather info again and it turns out that commandos really are immune to mind control and it's not something I made up. I had no idea that was the case when I wrote chap 1.

The next thing I found was that GDI's grade A asshole Redmond Boyle is actually Lando Calrissian, mind = blown since I've never noticed it before, how I don't know. The other 2 that blew my mind were General James Solomon as Vader and Premier Cherdenko as IT.

On the more serious side, the next chapter should have the beginning of the full scale war between the uprising and Reconquista. I'm probably going to need to have a few speeches in there somewhere and there are plenty of speeches by actual people like Churchill which are thousands of times more badass than anything I can ever dream up. Is it disrespectful to their memory if I use their words? I refuse to dishonour their memory and if someone can give me an answer I'll be most grateful.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 9: A grand gesture

"General, please give the order! I will take the dragon knights and destroy these rebels immediately, we can't keep sitting around doing nothing!" An officer slammed his hands onto the table, causing a pile of papers to collapse and drawing a small frown from the general in response.

"We can and we will. Five more ships are coming from the front to reinforce us, we won't move until they arrive or the peasants attack, whichever happens first." Major general Largo sighed and ran his fingers through his greying hair.

"BUT SIR! They continue to mock us with their defiance! We have to crush them, our fallen comrades deserve vengeance!"

"Sit down captain, my answer hasn't changed from the last three times you've asked me about it. I made the mistake of allowing that idiot noble to try and resolve the situation, his recklessness cost us the Belfast and any hope of settling things peacefully." Largo pulled out a file from one of the stacks and handed it to the junior officer.

"That's the report on the disastrous parley, take a good look at it Gingham. Bloody idiot attempted to assassinate the leader of the rebellion and got caught off guard when they saw it coming. Intelligence can't identify what those green orbs are but the destruction they caused speak for themselves, Belfast sunk with all hands. That is not something we can take lightly even with magic on our side."

"B-but this doesn't make sense! How can peasants have access to magic!?" Gingham flipped through the report before settling on the part where the report detailed the 'ambassadors' being shredded by gunfire.

"No… not magic… what kind of… what kind of weapons can do something like this… how did they get their hands on something like this!?"

"Ah so you noticed, there's hope for you yet captain. Our esteemed intelligence department still believes the fiasco to be the work of royalist mages seeded amongst the rebels." Snorting in contempt, Largo poured himself a cup of tea and sighed as the warm liquid burned on the way down.

"They are either wilfully blind or just idiots. These rebels aren't your average peasants with torches and pitchforks. They are a heavily armed faction hostile to us. I won't deny the possibility of royalists' agents working with them but these are not royalists."

"Sir?"

"These weapons… the royalists' forces holed up in Newcastle definitely do not have access to them otherwise Reconquista would have broken long ago. These rebels must be receiving support from an outside source… maybe Germanian mercenary groups or saboteurs from Romalia which raises the question of what else they have access to."

"Romalia? I understand those Germanian barbarians being willing to fight for whoever has coin but the holy see?"

"Pope Vittorio's official stance is that this is a matter for Albion to sort out on their own and Romalia will adopt a wait and see approach. But, there are more than a few who believe our revolution is heresy and would see us destroyed. I have heard tales of magical artefacts in the church's possession capable of feats similar to what the rebels have displayed."

Gingham swallowed nervously as the ramifications of having the church against them sunk in. If the pope decided that Reconquista needed to go and declared a crusade against them, they were doomed whatever Cromwell's assertion of divine protection. They didn't have the capabilities to fight a war against the unified forces of the rest of the world.

"So what do we do sir?"

"We wait and see. Collect whatever intel on the rebels we can get and wait for Cromwell's stealth destroyers to arrive. No need to rush off into battle captain, the storm will hit soon enough. The rebels will have to act or risk losing steam." The general paused in thought before scribbling a few lines on a piece of paper, handing it to Gingham.

"Take that to Major Giles, I want the guard rotations changed up. The rebel commander… whoever it is, will almost certainly attempt to break our walls to send a message and the attack will likely come at dawn or at meal times. I want the rotations moved forwards half a cycle."

"Sir? How do you figure that?"

"A guess based on his tactics at field of gold, he used an ambush to make up for a lack of numbers… I don't believe his manpower issue has changed so his main advantage will be these… unknown weapons. Dawn is the best time for an assault when the guards are sleepy. All he needs to do is focus on a single point and if he breaks through, Midgand's invincibility will vanish and he will gain all the support he needs."

"I understand, thank you for enlightening me sir!" Gingham saluted and left the office with orders in hand. The greying general sighed again and returned his attention to the paperwork piled in front of him. This tenuous peace wouldn't last much longer and he could feel it, he just prayed that Albion would remain intact once the storm passed.

-line break

"I'm not quite sure how I feel about breaking a criminal out of prison." Wales commented while seated in the vertigo's co-pilot's seat. His hands fiddled with a sealed letter before returning it to his pocket.

"Look at it this way, you're already aiding a bunch of treasonous fools intent on tearing down the existing order, adding one more criminal to the mix won't change much." Saito replied while keeping an eye on the readings.

Night held full sway over the land as the stealth bomber cut through the air. No anti-air magic spells rushed to meet them and the radar indicated no interceptors closing in when they crossed into Tristainian airspace. So far so good, now they just needed to retrieve their VIP and deliver Wales's letter… preferably without starting an international incident.

Setting down the vertigo on the roof of one of the many castle towers, Saito handed Wales an anchor spike and climbing rope as they exited. Ensuring no one was looking, both planted the anchors in the ground and tossed the rope over the edge.

The cool night air was refreshing as they rappelled down, exchanging a nod midway to the ground, Wales snuck in through an open window while Saito continued downwards. The inquisitor stuck to the shadows as he progressed through the castle grounds.

He had to suppress a snort at how laughably easy it was to sneak past the guards, half of them were asleep on their feet and the other half weren't far off from joining them. This place was just too peaceful… or was it overconfidence?

Upon seeing the warden asleep at his station, Saito shook his head in exasperation and relieved the man of his keys and entered the dungeon. 'They're seriously lucky I'm not their enemy.'

Making his way past the sleeping inmates, he crossed them off one at a time in search of his target. He found her at the end of the hall, a green haired noble with dishevelled robes. "Hello there."

Fouquet snapped awake at the sound of that hated voice. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she stared disbelievingly at the door to her cell as the thrice damned gandalfr stood on the other side. "You!"

"Me?" Saito blinked in surprise at the unexpected vitriol in her tone. He was used to his enemies cursing his very existence at every opportunity but by someone he was here to rescue? That was new, and pretty jarring considering all the things he'd heard from Tiffa.

"Why are you here!? Come to gloat, have you? Isn't it enough that you've destroyed everything!?" The bitterness in her voice was tangible and the hate in her eyes a blazing inferno.

"I… have no idea what you're talking about. Matilda of Saxe-Gotha, right?"

"Wha!? H-how do you know that? I never told anyone about that name."

"Tiffa told me."

"Damn you. Kill me if you must, leave her alone!"

"That's… not really an option. I'm not sure what your problem with me is, seeing as today is the first time we've met. But whoever it is you're confusing me for, I assure you I am not them. I'm here to help." Saito unlocked the door and pushed it open, gesturing for her to leave.

"Please, after you."

"You put me in jail and now you break me out? What are you playing at." Matilda asked dubiously, not quite sure whether to follow the apparently amnesiac gandalfr. A small part of her wondered if her adopted sister had decided to mindwipe the familiar and send him to break her out before dismissing it. Tiffania was too innocent to ever consider doing something like that.

"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know who arrested you or why you keep thinking I'm him and I don't really care. My mission is to retrieve you and bring you back to Westwood village. Whatever problem you have with me can be worked out later, right now we're on a tight schedule."

"How can I trust you?"

"Well… you can't. Look at it this way, you have no wand and no magic, you can either come with me and return to Westwood or, stay in this cell and rot. Best make up your mind soon, we don't have a lot of time."

"…Alright, I'll come with you. But this better not be a trap. And if you do anything to hurt Tiffa I'll kill you myself."

"Noted."

-line break

Sleep deserted Henrietta this night, her mind weighed down by matters of state and the heart. Reconquista's corruption ran deep and she was powerless to do much about except wait for Agnes and Saito to bring back news.

Then there was her impending marriage to the Germanian king.

Her heart was torn between her feelings and her duty. Tristain was too small, too weak to stand on their own forever, they needed the alliance with their more powerful neighbour to survive… at least that was what her advisors constantly nagged her about.

Without Germania, Reconquista would definitely invade or the treasonous nobles within Tristain itself would hand the entire nation over on a silver plate. But even if she did marry for the alliance, there was no guarantee Tristain would remain a sovereign nation for very long.

Reports of how Albrecht III ascended to the Germanian throne by beating out thirty-nine other imperial princes were sketchy at best but the various rumours and corroborating evidence painted an ugly picture. Some said he invited the other princes to a banquet announcing his retirement from the race. Others said that he had an independent arbiter call a meeting of the candidates to settle the succession dispute in a civilised manner without the need for a civil war.

They all ended the same way, thirty-nine princes and their entourages locked inside a palace while it burnt to ash. An accident? Attempted treachery on the part of one of them that tragically spiralled out of control? Cold blooded assassination by Albrecht? Nobody knew for sure, what was certain was that he was never there and the crown defaulted to the one prince still standing.

Her lips curled in disgust as she tried to imagine herself actually wedded to Albrecht III. If she actually went through with it, unfortunate accidents might befall her and any other successor to the crown she nominated, putting Tristain under a foreigners control.

"You know, you look nicer with a smile on your face." The familiar voice drew her from her thoughts and she spun around to face the intruder standing at the door.

"Wales?"

"But of course. It's been awhile my dear, I missed you." The crown prince of Albion executed a bow before nearly being bowled over by Henrietta rushing in for a hug. Patting the sobbing princess on the back, they stood like that for a long while as time remained frozen for the both of them.

Regaining control of her emotions, Henrietta felt lighter now and pulled away with a light flush on her cheeks. "W-what are you doing here? I thought you were in Albion fighting Reconquista."

Wales pulled out the letter Henrietta had given to him so long ago and handed it over. "I march to war at dawn, I came here to return this to you."

Hugging the letter close, she stared up at Wales while doing her best not to let the tears start falling again. "Must you? Stay here, Tristain can provide a safe place to hide. You don't have to fight anymore."

"I can't do that. Albion is my home and I cannot leave things as they are. My duty as crown prince… no, it's more than that, I wish to build a better world for the people. Whether it is Cromwell or my father, both of them aren't what's best for Albion."

"What are you saying?"

Wales smiled sadly and shook his head. "Cromwell is a despot hiding behind the robes of a priest, and my father… my father has lost sight of what it means to be king. Others have taken up arms to forge a new nation, one where oppression will no longer exist, I have chosen to stand with them. I can't walk away from this anymore than you can walk away from your role as princess."

"Can you… can you win?"

"Yes. We will. We must. In the morning, we strike the first true blow against Reconquista, a grand gesture heralding the birth of a new Albion." Wales proudly declared, his eyes already set on the future he would craft with his own two hands. Caledfwylch hung at his waist, thrumming with power and reinforcing his resolve.

"How can you be so strong? Aren't you afraid?" Henrietta wondered aloud drawing a small chuckle from Wales.

"To say that I'm not afraid at all would be a lie, I'm not strong at all. I rely on the people around me as they do on me. Alone we are weak, together we are strong. I'm… sorry I can't be here for you right now, but put your faith in those you trust, they will carry you where I cannot."

Henrietta was about to deny those words, that there couldn't possibly be anyone who could help her out in this time except him. The denial died in her throat when images of her loyal musketeers and her childhood friend plus eccentric familiar flashed across her mind.

A small beep came from a communicator in Wales robes signalling that Saito had already retrieved their target and was on the way back to the vertigo. "I need to go. Stay safe my love."

The two embraced and shared a kiss before Wales reluctantly parted and made for the door but not before giving Henrietta a few parting words. "Stay strong Henrietta, you're better than you think you are."

Turning away he sprinted off into the silent corridor, adamant about not showing her his own crying visage.

-line break

"Why is it so crammed in here?" Matilda grumbled as she was squeezed in a very awkward position between the co-pilot seat and the cockpit's canopy.

"Well the plan was to stuff you in the empty bomb bay but since you insisted on sitting up front, deal with it." Saito answered while flying the stealth craft back to base.

"I'm keeping an eye on you… and you didn't say anything about working with the crown prince of Albion!"

"Hey! I'm sitting right here, there's no need to shout into my ear."

"Must have slipped my mind. I understand you mixing me up with someone else but what is your problem with Wales? We will be working together for the foreseeable future so I'd appreciate if you speak your piece now or this uncomfortable ride will be the least of our problems."

"He's the crown prince! His father was responsible for the deaths of both of Tiffa's parents and the destruction of my entire family! I'm grateful for you breaking me out but you cannot expect me to work with him!" Matilda cursed again and glared at the prince who was now rubbing his ears in pain.

"And what do you expect me to do about that? I was a kid at the time! What? You want me to attack him with my wooden sword? Or maybe you want me to stop his assassins with my non-existent magic? I didn't even know about the death of my uncle until months after the fact."

"So I'm just supposed to ignore all the abuses your family and the nobility continue to perpetuate to this day? You see injustice and you just look the other way! Oh, it's just nobles disciplining some upstart peasant. Oh, I'm sure he had a good reason to execute an entire family. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine… easy to blind yourself to the truth isn't it?"

"Grrr… and just what the hell do you think I'm trying to do? I've sided with a peasant uprising aiming to destroy both Reconquista and the royalists to create a world where none of that can happen again. I'm fighting because I wish to have a hand in bringing about that ideal and because it is my responsibility to right the wrongs perpetuated by my family… and just so you recall, Tiffania is my cousin, that makes her royalty as well. So do watch what dirt you sling about _criminal_ , whatever the crimes of my family, my hands are clean, yours though…"

"Why you-"

"Enough! Both of you! We have enough enemies already, no need to turn on one another. I understand that both of you care for Tiffa in your own way, one an adopted sister, another a cousin, so please. If only for her sake, try to be civil."

Silence ruled the cockpit as each retreated into their own thoughts. Matilda was the first to break it. "Alright, I'll put aside my vendetta for… for Tiffa. Truce?"

"Truce."

Matilda nodded and a small locket in her pocket, a gift from the half-elf she'd kept with her for years, a good luck charm of sorts. "Why did you rescue me anyway? What exactly do you want me for?"

"At dawn the rebellion will march on Midgand fortress and take it or die trying. Of course, a direct assault is suicide, the walls are too thick and reinforced with magic, we won't break them in time to avoid being shredded by the counter attack. We have a plan but it necessitates the involvement of a powerful earth mage, something we're in short supply of. Then, Tiffa recommended you."

"So you broke me out of jail figuring I'd prefer death by suicide mission instead death by executioner's axe. Wonderful." Matilda deadpanned as she tried to figure out if they were seriously planning to assault one of the most fortified locations in the world in little less than six hours from present time.

It was Wales who answered instead of Saito. "First off, it's not a suicide mission, the plan has a decent chance of working and Midgand isn't as invincible as it appears to be. Secondly, you won't be fighting, we just need you to create several tunnels and ensure they don't bury us alive."

"And you want me to finish those tunnels before the attack I presume."

Wales shrugged and answered honestly. "Yeah, it's rushed to be sure but we don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Ideally, we would have readied the tunnels days in advance but locating you was a problem. It was luck that we found you at the last minute but the attack would have gone ahead with or without you, with you though we're hoping to keep casualties to a minimum.

"Look on the bright side, history is about to be made and you'll be right in the middle of it." Saito pipped up while checking a notification from his base that indicated his forces were ready to be deployed.

"Destiny calls, let's not keep it waiting. The eyes of the world are upon us."

-line break

Dawn was less than an hour away and the sky was beginning to lighten. Final preparations for the attack were underway. Militiamen kept a tight grip on their weapons and engaged in nervous conversation with one another while the armoured vehicles provided by Saito rumbled into position.

The army wasn't exceptionally large by anyone's standards, barely the size of some of the larger mercenary companies. Even with Saito's cyborgs their numbers barely edged over a thousand but what they lacked in numbers they made up for with spirit.

Wales stood on a platform overlooking the amassed might of the rebellion, Saito and Charles were stationed several paces behind him. Closing his eyes and sucking in a deep breath, he let himself be fully immersed in the moment. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut but the sense of impending doom was missing.

The militiamen had been put through their paces by Charles and the equipment issued by Saito was unmatched by anything Reconquista could field. The men weren't daunted by the odds, their faith in their commanders was unshaken despite the fact that more than a few of them would not be returning come nightfall.

Perhaps it was the fact that they were fighting for their freedom, for a better future for their families. Perhaps it was because they'd already bloodied their oppressors once and Reconquista no longer had that sense of invincibility. It was probably a mixture of both Wales mused to himself as he felt the butterflies in his stomach settle down after witnessing the militia's conviction.

"Gentlemen of the revolution." He began to speak and the masses quieted down to hear his words.

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade, towards which you have striven with all your heart. You do not stand alone, with you marches the hopes and prayers of all who desire the return of liberty to Albion.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms the Marked, you will bring about the destruction of the Reconquista war machine, the elimination of tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Albion and security for us all in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. They will fight savagely to retain their grip on our great nation.

But! Today, is a new day! Much has happened since Reconquista's triumphs of the past. We have inflicted on them a great defeat at the field of gold. We have the overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war now.

The tide is in our favour! Even now they hide behind their walls, too afraid to face us in the open. Look around you, look upon the faces of those who march with you. Yesterday they were strangers, today they are your brothers. We are all free men and we march together towards victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and your skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than total victory, we will not stop until all of our chains have been broken. No more will our fellow men be oppressed by anyone.

I stand before you not as the crown prince of Albion but as just another man, unable and unwilling to stand by and watch as injustice reigns supreme.

The price of freedom is steep, always has been. Some of us might not return at the end of today. If anyone wishes to go back to their families and live to see another day nobody will fault you. Please step forth and go with our blessing."

Wales waited as silence gripped his audience.

Not a man stepped forth except one in the front row. "Sod off! You want us to run away and live under some despot? The hell with that. I don't know about everyone else here but I am willing to fight. I ain't letting some snot nosed prince march off into battle while I hide under my bed! I don't know bout the rest of them nobles your princeliness but I'll march under you."

Baring his teeth in a feral grin and saluting, a great cheer went up from the rest of the army as they shouted their own intent to fight.

"Very well. Today marks the beginning of a new age! Today, we take the first step on the road to a new world. Today! We! Make! Destiny!"

The resultant cheering was deafening.

-line break

"What the hell is this? Hey sarge! Come take a look at this!" A Reconquista private picked up a strange glowing object and held it out for the rest of the squad to view.

"I found it just lying on the ramparts. What do you think it is?"

"Eh? Probably something one of those fancy nobles dropped. Forget it, we have better things to-" Whatever the patrol sergeant was about to say would forever remain a mystery as six high impact shells landed on their position and the area vanished in a blast of white.

As the first rays of dawn peeked over the horizon, the sleeping inhabitants of Midgand awoke to a cacophony of screaming and explosions.

Dragon riders and moored ships scrambled to take off before the artillery rain destroyed their air power. Soldiers rushed to their positions and tried to take shelter wherever they could find them. On the walls, mortar teams hurried to ready their own guns for the return salvo.

Inside an underground bunker that served as the fortress command centre, General Largo puffed on a pipe as the chaos outside drew his attention. "So it's begun."

Sending a pulse of magic into the war table, the surface of the black stone shimmered and a bird's eye view of Midgand and the surrounding area popped up. Several gasps came from the younger officers and nobles in attendance who had never seen the Muninn system active before.

Largo ignored them and watched keenly as the rebel's strange war machines swarmed out of the woods and raced for the breach in the fortress' walls. The smaller vehicles peppered the battlements with either bullets or slower projectiles that exploded on contact like a bomb. The larger ones appeared to be armed with their own cannons and were mainly focused on increasing the size of the breach by firing on the weakened sections.

He frowned at the rate of fire the enemy was putting out, aside from the initial bombardment, their weapons weren't strong enough to break the magically reinforced walls but they were slowly chipping away at it. "Modified variants of existing weaponry with improved speed, power and accuracy eh? Just as I expected."

Sending a second pulse of magic into the table, Largo fired up the second enchantment, Huginn, and a hologram of one of his battleship captains appeared. "Captain, take the Birmingham and destroy those rebel weapons before they damage the wall any further. Frigates Victory and Thunderbolt will support you. Be ready for any 'surprises' the rebels might have."

"Yes Sir."

The hologram cut off and Largo returned his attention to the live feed, trying to pinpoint the source of the continuing artillery barrage. Wincing as he witnessed several artillery rounds land atop a munitions stockpile and bring forth a vision of hell, he traced the path with his finger and staggered slightly when the shockwave hit. Looking up again, he noticed his finger had landed on a small patch of forest that was discoloured.

On closer inspection, he noted that it was a strange scorpion-like thing, six small legs anchored it into the ground and a 'tail' was pointed into the sky, every few seconds the tail would launch a deadly shell towards Midgand.

"Clever bastards, hiding in the woods eh." Snapping his fingers, the artillery piece was outlined in red and several more highlights appeared scattered across the map, indicating the location of every one of the spectres.

There were ten in total, eight were within range of his guns while the last two lay just beyond it. Using Huginn to relay targeting coordinates to the gunners, he then issued the order for Gingham and his dragon knights to sortie and finish off the remaining two.

-line break

Feeling the wind whipping against his face, Gingham squinted and tried to spot his target in the distance. His orders were clear, the peasant's artillery platform was to be destroyed at all cost but finding it was an issue.

"Captain, I don't see anything. Are we headed in the right dire-WHOA!" The dragon knight who spoke pulled hard on the reins as a glowing projectile shot out from the trees and passed right through the centre of their formation.

Gingham watched with wide eyes as the shell landed directly on top of a gun emplacement and reduced it to twisted scrap. "What absurd accuracy… we need to kill that thing now!"

The Reconquista dragon knights sped off in the direction the shot came from and kept their eyes peeled for their target. Gingham's vice-captain was the first to spot the spectre camouflaged among the foliage.

The knight raised his wand and launched a fireball towards the offending machine, engulfing it in an inferno and dealing some damage. Strange plant like stalks erupted out of the ground and opened up into a something resembling some kind of exotic plant.

"What the?" The vice-captain was caught off guard when the turrets tracked and fired on him, spitting out a full salvo of green missiles. Vanishing in an explosion, the turrets didn't let up and immediately began tracking the other knights and firing on them.

Gingham swore as he forced his mount into a steep dive to avoid sharing his subordinate's fate. Coming out of the dive in an attack run, he fired wind spell after wind spell at the turrets. The other surviving dragon knights followed their captain upon seeing that the turrets either couldn't or wouldn't fire upon him when he was close to the ground.

Satisfaction replaced fear when the first of the turrets broke under the combined assault of the knights and crumpled in on itself, the two remaining weren't in very good shape either. Trusting in his comrades' ability, he focused on the artillery piece again.

Swearing when the spectre launched another shell towards Midgand with a deafening boom, Gingham fired a ball of swirling wind towards it. Detonating upon contact, the winds mixed with the remaining flames from the earlier spell and created a localised fire tornado with the spectre right in the centre of it.

Metal casing cracked in places, belching thick black smoke and half its cannon missing, the spectre wasn't quite dead yet. Retracting the six claws anchoring it into the ground and returning to its caterpillar tracks, the spectre tried to retreat and reengage the stealth generator.

Noticing his quarry was trying to escape and beginning to fade into invisibility, Gingham narrowed his eyes and took aim at one of the rents in the armour. Firing a wind spear into it, he was rewarded with the spectre shuddering to a halt and blowing up into a million tiny pieces.

"Target destroyed. No new orders from the general… alright, we'll help drive off the peasants still trying to break the wall if the guns haven't already destroyed them." Gingham ordered and his heart sunk when only four voices answered him, his original squad of ten had been cut in half and the day was still far from won.

-line break

The inquisitor frowned as the signals from his spectres cut off one by one, only three were left and their status indicated that they were under heavy enemy fire.

"Something wrong?" Wales asked when he noticed Saito had stopped in his tracks. They were deep underground inside one of Fouquet's tunnels with quite a bit of distance to their target.

"Reconquista found my spectres, they're being destroyed one at a time." Saito answered and keyed in a few commands, ordering the surviving spectres to retreat if possible.

"Will that be a problem?"

"No. It would have been nice if they could continue their shelling for a bit more but it's fine as it is, their main purpose has already been fulfilled and they'll have to stop the bombardment soon anyway." Saito shrugged and resumed walking, the spectres being found and destroyed was annoying but ultimately inconsequential, the vertigos were already committed and the militia almost in place. All that was left was to do his part.

-line break

High above the clouds, a flight of four vertigos cut through the air, carrying their deadly payload towards its final destination.

Midgand's walls were battered and barely standing, great chunks of it were missing in places where concentrated fire had overwhelmed the defences. The damage was the worst at the northernmost point where the initial bombardment had focused on.

Scorpion tanks, raider buggies and attack bikes milled around like tiny insects trying to avoid being shot to pieces by the three airships raining bombs on top of them while firing on the walls. Their high mobility made is hard for Reconquista to land killing blows on them and the vertigo pilots could see several more air ships moving to reinforce their brethren along with several flights of dragon knights.

Sinking the ships would have been so easy but the vertigos lacked enough bombs to do that and still succeed in their mission. Ignoring them for the time being, the vertigos homed in on the damaged section of the wall.

"Target verified, bombing run initiated."

The bombers uncloaked for a split second right over the heads of the startled defenders and jettisoned their deadly package.

The bombs exploded on contact with the wall in a massive blast that shook the wall to its very foundations. Already weakened from the earlier artillery strikes, the wall couldn't take the punishment any longer and shook under the stress, great cracks spreading across its surface.

Like a magnificent train wreck, it was painful to watch yet impossible to look away from. Its structural integrity fatally compromised, large chunks of masonry fell of during the shaking before the wall collapsed in on itself.

Beginning slowly at first, as though it itself was unable to believe it was collapsing, it was a slow majestic fall inwards before speeding up and taking the rest of the section down with it in a rush to the ground.

As the vertigos banked hard and flew off in the direction of the air tower, they strafed the airships with their own machine guns, blasting holes in the wood and shredding any crewmen unfortunate enough to be caught in the way.

Stealth generators kicking in again, the vertigos flared momentarily before returning to invisibility, leaving only the devastation they wrought in their wake.

As the dust from the collapse settled, the defenders' hearts sank even further. The damage was clear as day, a massive breach wide enough to fit two mammoth tanks abreast had been punched into their invincible wall.

And the vehicles milling about earlier were now making a break for it. There weren't many of them left but if they made it inside, destroying them would be a lot harder since their guns couldn't fire into the fort and the air ships would have to cease fire or level the fort along with the rebels.

-line break

The fort commander was paying full attention to the table before him. He didn't know what manner of flying monster the rebels had fielded against him or how they were capable of hiding from the Muninn but he didn't have the time to deal with it right now.

His response to the breach was swift and resolute, all available earth mages in the area were to reinforce the breach at once and do everything they could to stall the enemy advance. Dragon knights would assist however they could and they were to last until the rest of the fleet managed to get airborne. There would be no retreat.

Just thinking of the grounded airships gave him a headache. He'd initially thought it was good fortune that the ships had survived the artillery strike. That changed when they refused to take off.

He had the reason for that on closer inspection of the fort, the officer barracks had been hit during the initial strike. Given that only craters marked where the buildings once stood, he doubted that any of the residents had survived.

Only the foresight to insist that at least half the ships ready for launch at any time prevented the situation from being completely unsalvageable. Never had he been gladder about overruling the uppity nobles by pulling rank.

"Unnecessary they said, uncomfortable they said. Well, I just saved their founder damned lives." Largo grumbled and continued searching the table.

The battle outside the fort was being handled and he could do nothing more except wait and see if he played his cards right. His more pressing concern was the assassins running about assassinating his troops and planting bombs.

"Come out you damned rats…"

-line break

As the last member of a Reconquista infantry squad fell to the ground dead from a head shot, shadow team alpha retreated into the shadows to hide. Their charges were set and ready to detonate as soon as they were clear.

When the armoury went up in a ball of flames, more Reconquista reinforcements came running like moths drawn to a flame. They went down in a hail of gunfire once they entered specially prepared kill zones. Shadows bravo and Charlie pulled back from their positions and moved to set up new ambush points.

The stealth cyborgs had been wreaking havoc behind enemy lines once they were done setting up artillery beacons. Their mission was technically complete after the initial set up and they were now picking off targets of opportunity. The more they killed, the easier it would be for the militia to do their part later.

Bravo sequestered themselves inside an empty building and began setting charges when several dragon knights dropped out of the sky and landed next to it. Drawing their automatic pistols to gun down the hostiles, they were too slow and the dragons exhaled a torrent of white-hot fire into the windows, incinerating the cyborgs instantly.

Team Charlie met a similar fate when several mages used earth magic to collapse the building they were in on top of them and then flooded the rubble to drown them.

Alpha split up into individuals once they saw their comrades' vitals flatline. Scattering across the base, they ditched strategy in favour of gunning down everyone in their path. One met his end impaling himself on a rock spike that erupted from the floor, one ceased to be when a dragon knight did a strafing run and burned the entire alley and one found his destiny inside the jaws of a dragon.

The last shadow was eventually hounded down by the knights and made a last stand when there was nowhere left to run. Missing an arm from where it had been hacked off with a sword, the shadow unloaded the last of his ammunition, bringing down a dragon before the others lined up to blast him.

Before his death, he managed to piece together that it was the dragons who had managed to root out their positions. Wherever they went the dragons followed even when other Reconquista forces lost them. Transmitting his findings, the shadow stood in place as a wind spear pierced his heart and ended him.

-line break

Saito fingered his communicator and debated if he should wait any longer. His shadows had been eliminated and the armour divisions still hadn't made it behind the walls. The concentrated fire from the air ships and the mages attempts to barricade the breach was proving more problematic than initially expected.

Much of his cyborg army had been wiped out at this point and he only had a few cards left to play. With his assets inside the fortress eliminated, the flow of information had effectively ground to a halt. The communicator was good at what it did but unfortunately, it was never designed with the intention of coordinating a full-scale battle alone. The degree of battle control it afforded just couldn't compare to a proper command centre.

At far as he could tell, roughly half the fleet stationed at Midgand was now airborne and harassing his armour units. His attempt to ground the fleet by wiping out the commanders had only succeeded partially much to his frustration.

The plan was to capture and use the ships once Reconquista had been beaten. With half the fleet airborne, capturing those would be impossible now. He sighed and recalled an old adage, no battleplan survives contact with the enemy. Time for plan B.

"Fuck it, half a fleet is better than no fleet. I'm sending in the stealth tanks."

-line break

Gingham circled overhead staying just ahead of the raider buggy trying to track him with its guns while raining wind spears down on it. Sweat matted his brow as he felt himself starting to run low on willpower.

The battle below was almost won, enemy ground forces were no match for the combined firepower of so many heavy guns. The victory if you could call it that left a sour taste in his mouth, the battleships Scarlet Tide and Strife had been sunk and most of the others bore damage of some degree.

Considering their opponent should have been nothing more than a bunch of rebellious peasants, such a loss was unacceptable… and that wasn't even counting all the damage Midgand had sustained.

"What's wrong with you? There's nothing there!" Gingham's mount started acting up the instant he destroyed the raider buggy, snarling at empty air as though there was an enemy present. Pulling on the reins to regain control, his eyes widened in shock when more rebel vehicles disengaged their stealth generators.

The strange lobster shaped vehicle pointed their turrets towards the fleet and opened fire, sending streaks of green into the sky. Multiple explosions blossomed across the fleet as the rockets found their mark. The Birmingham was the first to fall, the crew unable to do anything as their vessel was effectively sheared in half.

"They're going to sink the fleet..." Gingham whispered, unable to believe his own words or what he was witnessing. Regaining his senses, he did his best to rally the other knights and mount a counter offensive.

"STOP THEM! DESTROY THEM BEFORE THEY DESTROY THE FLEET!" Roaring at the top of his lungs, he made a dive for the newcomers, several knights followed his lead.

Firing his wind spells on the tanks, panic mounted when he was barely able to breach their armour, his willpower was being depleted fast and his focus had been thrown off. "No no no no NO! I won't let it end like this!"

Reaching deep into himself, he drew upon reserves he didn't even know he had and cast an earth spell he'd only ever seen used once. A wide area devastation attack favoured by his mentor, one of Albion's strongest strategic mages on par with Tristain's heavy wind. "QUAKE!"

A spell designed to agitate the earth itself and unleash a massive earthquake that could shake apart entire fortresses or open up massive fissures in the earth to swallow armies whole. While lacking the power of his teacher and the experience in using the spell, his desperate overloading of willpower made up for it.

While nowhere close to the level of damage the original could do, it still succeeded. Partially. Stealth tanks in the vicinity of the spell ceased fire when the rumbling threw off their aim. Additionally, three of them fell into crevasses that opened up beneath them before being crushed.

Gingham felt his body sag as the spell took everything he had left. His willpower was completely drained at this point and he had nothing left to throw against the rebels. Sensing its masters duress, the dragon turned and made for the fortress.

The captain stared at the raging battle he was leaving behind and grit his teeth in frustration. Despite their best efforts, the fleet was still taking heavy fire and at the rate the stealth tanks were firing, most if not all of the ships would be sunk before the enemy could be wiped out.

-line break

Saito sat patiently as the reports continued flowing in. None of the armour units had managed to breach the walls in the end and he was looking at total annihilation of all cyborg units. The enemy dragon knights were proving to be more of a nuisance then he ever thought possible.

"Magic. I hate magic." He cursed and buried his face in his hands. Retraining all those troops would be a massive pain in the ass, assuming he survived the day that was.

"Things not going so well aboveground?" Wales queried.

"Dragon knights are annoying. Reconquista is good at blowing stuff up. What else is new?"

"Ahahaha… well Albion's dragon knights were always one of our strong points."

"Sucks to be on the receiving end."

"How bad is it?"

"I was expecting the diversionary unit to sustain great losses, 100% fatalities was out of my projections… well it's fine I guess, acceptable losses and all that. We just have to avoid any large-scale battle in the near future until I can build a new army." Saito shrugged and stood up stretching as he did so to work out the kinks.

"It's time, the militia are in position and most of Reconquista have been drawn to the walls. The vertigos are a few minutes out, once they arrive, we strike." Wales nodded and rose as well, Caledfwylch already drawn and ready for battle. A chorus of clicking sounded off as almost a hundred awakened turned their safeties off and stood in file behind the prince.

The rest of the militia were standing by in tunnels similar to the one they were in. Each group were gathered beneath a key point of Midgand and as soon as Saito gave the word, they would burst out of the ground and storm the fortress itself.

After a concerted assault from both the ground and air had been repelled, Reconquista would never expect an assault to come from beneath their feet. The sacrifice of his armour divisions would not be in vain.

It was a stroke of luck on their part, most people were unaware that Midgand had actually been built on top of a large network of tunnels that spanned miles in every direction.

Normally that would have raised serious questions about the structural integrity of the fortress sitting atop all that empty air but unlike the surface, the underground was saturated with magical energy resulting in the rock being incredibly tough. In fact, Midgand's walls were built to replicate that effect.

Originally conceptualised as a second layer of the fortress, additional barracks and storage areas were to be built there where they'd be protected from all possible forms of attack. That fell through when engineers found it impossible to seal off all unnecessary tunnels and while resistant to conventional assault, any square class earth mage would be able to bend the rock to their will albeit with some difficulty. All this made defending the place a logistical nightmare and the project was scrapped.

Attempts to map out the tunnels and caverns were halted and the royals of the time decided that the complexity of the tunnels would be the greatest defence. If nobody had a map of the place, nobody would be able to make it to the fortress' soft underbelly before being detected.

Only the royal family kept the most complete map and the tunnels were repurposed into emergency passageways during a civil war of the past. As the years passed, memory of the passages faded away and when the royals moved to Londinium even the map disappeared.

It wasn't until the late archduke of Albion stopped by Midgand for an inspection was the map found again. He kept it until his assassination where it was then used by a young Matilda to spirit Tiffa away from the fortress they had sought refuge in.

Tiffa had kept that map as one of the few mementos she had left of her father and eventually Saito had gotten his hands on it. With it they had identified key infiltration points and Matilda had delivered spectacularly on her part.

Multiple additional tunnels connected all the points allowing for easy and speedy access without any chance of getting lost. The inquisitor wondered if poetic justice really did exist, years ago the mage had escaped the fort with nothing but the clothes on her back while carrying an innocent child with a bounty on her head. Now she was helping a group of rebels intent on tearing down the ones responsible break into the fort through the same way she left.

The notification he'd been waiting for came through at last. The vertigos had arrived and struck at the largest clustering of enemy infantry, the small shudder that ran through the ground from their bombs heralded the rebellion's ascension.

"Gentlemen. It's go time. Midgand must be taken no matter the cost. I'll see you all on the other side, god speed." Giving the signal, Saito triggered the explosives set beneath the exits, blowing the floor up and outwards. Rushing at the wall, he scaled it in record time with the awakened following close behind him. Wales used magic to fly his way to the top instead.

As soon as he emerged, he came across several Reconquista nobles disoriented from the sudden blast, he put a bullet in each one of them without hesitation. Once the strike force was above ground, Saito split off from the prince and took half the awakened with him.

His objective was to find the commander and either kill or capture him while the Wales would secure the remaining ships and prevent them from being used in some kind of suicide move.

Saito sucked in a breath as he charged down the streets, army in tow. The sound of gunfire and explosions came from all over the place as the rest of the militia made their presence known. Chaos reigned supreme as the defenders were completely unprepared for an enemy assault from inside the fortress itself.

Forming a greatshield with Aegis, he held it out to block incoming fireballs from enemy mages as the awakened cut them down with ruthless efficiency.

When enemy spearmen tried rushing him head on, he never faltered nor backed down, only increasing the speed of his charge. Their spears met his shield and broke, leaving the shocked spearmen to be bulldozed and either shot to pieces by the awakened or trampled underfoot.

As they made their bloody way through the fort, squads of awakened broke off to support other struggling militia squads. They were replaced by several squads of tiberium troopers that had surfaced with the militia.

Their grey coloured powered armour and red faceplates burned gold in the light of the flames they unleashed on their unfortunate victims. Saito watched with grim satisfaction as the hard work he put into retrofitting these cyborgs with flame weaponry paid off.

Unlike liquid tiberium, the tiberium based fuel being used had no environment destroying side effects but retained the same effectiveness. Garrisoned infantry were incinerated by the dozens as the mages within had no defence against the flames.

Using the shield as an umbrella to keep the blood and gore of a downed dragon from touching him, Saito planted an explosive charge on the door of the building his shadows had identified as the enemy HQ.

As soon as he blew the door of their hinges, he was met with a volley of spells from the mages within and awakened dropped like flies. Blocking the spells aimed for him with Aegis, he had the awakened pull back before lobbing several hallucinogenic grenades into the defenders' midst.

Once the mages started firing on their own, the inquisitor had the awakened march in to finish them off in close quarters using their mechanical limbs. The risk of destroying valuable documents that could be captured was too high to justify using guns or flamethrowers.

Clearing the compound floor by floor using the same procedure, Saito eventually found himself standing outside the general's office. Readying a breaching charge, he halted when a voice came from within. "Come in, the door's unlocked."

Keeping Aegis at the ready, he directed one of the cyborgs to open the door just in case it was some kind of a trap. As it was, he needn't have bothered, no offensive spell rushed out to meet him, no gunfire attempted to perforate him, no sudden explosion or spikes or anything.

Behind the door was just a simple office with one additional door at the back. An oaken desk was situated prominently in the centre and an aging general sat behind it.

"Come in. Would you care for some tea?"

-line break

Wales stabbed a Reconquista soldier through the sternum and ripped his sword free before decapitating another on the back swing. Wiping a bead of sweat away, the prince allowed his escorts to sweep past him to overrun the enemy positions.

The battle was a mess but the tide was in the rebellion's favour. The docks were almost completely under rebel control now except for the pockets of resistance holed up inside the ships themselves, those would take more time to clear out.

He couldn't tell what was happening at the walls but the scattered conversations he picked up from militiamen he passed by indicated that things were going well there as well. The dragon knights that had been so integral to blunting the Marked's offensive were already drained from fighting the cyborgs and made for easy pickings for the militia's machines guns and rockets. Upon checking in with the cyborgs in his company, Reconquista had already begun retreating through the breach in the wall.

Victory was almost theirs, now they just had to mop up the few pockets of resistance left inside the fortress and secure General Largo. Despite that, the impending victory tasted of ashes and Wales had to resist retching.

Soaked in the blood of his countrymen while hundreds more died all around him both peasant militia and Reconquista agents. Their broken corpses lay where they fell as others fought standing over them. Madness had claimed the combatants, had claimed him, now that he had a reprieve from the fighting all that just hit him in the face.

Wondering what sort of peace could be built on top of so many corpses, Wales spat to clear the taste from his mouth and shook his head vigorously to rid himself of such thoughts. Raising Caledfwylch, he stared into the blade's mirror like sheen and pressed his forehead into the metal.

The feeling of the cool enchanted steel against his flesh calmed him down and granted him focus again. Whatever his doubts he'd already committed to the war effort. It was the only way, both Reconquista and his father's own tyranny had to end one way or another.

Grabbing one of the cyborgs, he ordered it to assemble a small squad to follow him. His job was done here and he would rendezvous with Saito, preferably before he found and executed the general. In the time he'd known Saito, Wales had realised he was many things, a good commander, a brilliant fighter, a loyal if eccentric familiar… but merciful wasn't one of them.

-line break

General Largo sat in his chair and offered a cup of tea to the enemy commander who had blitzed his way through Midgand. He had made his way here from the underground bunker as soon as the peasant militia erupted from underground and started shooting his dragon knights in the back while securing the fortress.

Staying down there no longer served any purpose. Muninn and Huginn were effective magical systems but their usefulness was limited to directing the battle from a centralised location. It had no ability to pull out a miracle to turn the tides at the last moment.

Reconquista had been out manoeuvred and paid the price for it. He didn't have any troops left to stem the rebel advance into the fortress after committing his forces to the walls to hold of the enemy armour.

Reconquista had lost.

He had lost.

All there was left to do was discuss surrender terms.

He didn't know who the man before him was other than intelligence had identified him as the spokesperson for the uprising. In all honesty he would have preferred negotiating with the prince since at least he could count on the prince being willing to talk.

Considering the last time Reconquista had attempted to parley, he considered it a good sign that he hadn't already been shot.

"Tea? You must be joking, why would I drink anything you've poisoned." Saito kept his pistol levelled at the general's head while looking around the place warily.

Largo sighed and withdrew the cup, taking a sip from it himself. "Suit yourself, this is fine stuff you know. Imported straight from Gallia, most people go their whole lives without being able to enjoy a cup."

"More unnecessary decadence at the expense of the people. People like you make me sick."

"If that is how you wish to see me I can't stop you. I'd say that I bought this with the fruits of my own labour but you won't believe me anyway."

"…Pretty much. Die." Saito pulled the trigger when a wind barrier sprung up around the old man, deflecting his bullet to the side.

"GENERAL!" Gingham burst through the back door having heard the last part of the conversation. Throwing up a desperate wind barrier around his commander, he managed to deflect the first shot and skidded to a halt when two more bullets stopped inches from his face, held there by Largo's magic.

"That's enough captain, we've lost so stand down."

"But sir!"

"Stand. Down. Captain."

"But I… yes sir…"

"I apologise for my… overeager subordinate. You've won this battle and I would like to discuss surrender terms now." Largo continued speaking calmly, unperturbed by his brush with death.

"Surrender? If my men tried surrendering they'd get a public execution. Heaven knows Reconquista had done far worse for far less." Saito shrugged and continued pointing his pistol at the general while the awakened behind him levelled their guns as well.

"How about I show you the same mercy you've shown everyone else. No prisoners, only trophies." The order to fire was halfway out of his mouth before either Reconquista officers could protest when a hand forced his gun arm down.

"That's enough Saito, enough blood has been spilt already." Wales said tiredly as he pushed the arm down. His appearance drew a shout of 'the crown prince!' from Gingham and a raised eyebrow from Largo.

"You cannot be serious. We have them dead to rights, kill them now that's one less problem we have to worry about in the future." Saito protested but otherwise made no move to raise his sidearm again.

"Maybe. But we don't kill people who've already lost the will to fight. I don't give a damn if that's what Reconquista would do, we're not Reconquista."

"What would you have us do then? Imprison them all? That's a waste of resources. A bullet for each of them and we won't have to worry about feeding these useless sacks of flesh."

"They are prisoners of war and will be treated as such. If that means feeding them and tending to their wounds so be it. We will not summarily execute enemy captives now or ever. They will be placed in holding cells until the war is over then they will be put on trial for any crimes they may have committed. The innocent will be released and one day they may become our allies."

"Rrrghh… and if they become a problem?"

"Then we deal with it then. You told me you would keep the uprising in line, that it would not come to a full circle revolution where we become the very things we've been fighting against. If we start behaving like our enemies because it's what they'd do, how long do you think it will be before we become them? How long before you'll have to turn your guns against us?"

"I… understand. I don't agree with your view but I'll follow your lead." Saito waved his hand and the awakened lowered their weapons. Once done he stepped back and left Wales to conduct the surrender talks.

"General Largo… it's been awhile hasn't it?"

"So it has kid, almost ten years I think."

"You were always one of my father's most loyal generals, why side with Reconquista."

Largo shrugged and sipped his tea before answering. "Wasn't that hard of a decision to make. Cromwell can be something of a crackpot but he has influence, enough to unite Albion under one banner. Your father's completely insane and on the path to destroying the nation. I chose the lesser of two evils."

"Cromwell desires to rule the world. He would have us all fight an unwinnable war then Albion would be destroyed anyway. What the hell were you thinking!?"

"I was thinking that the status quo could not be allowed to stand. Cromwell's one world order is still a long way off, plenty of time to change his mind. But your father… I don't think you realise how deeply your father has sunk into madness.

"Then tell me. Tell me what could possibly cause a man I consider to be like my own _uncle_ to betray everything he once stood for."

"Your father is attempting to extract the heart of the void and use it in some insane attempt to grant himself immortality." Largo's answer elicited gasps of shock from both Gingham and Wales while Saito only looked on, not getting the significance of it.

"You're joking. The heart of the void is a myth, a fairy tale, Albion floats simply because of a combination of naturally occurring wind and earth magic. There is no void magic involved, let alone a 'heart' that produces it. It's what the scholars have concluded." Wales denied.

"Then why only Albion. If it is naturally occurring why just one country? And why aren't there examples of other elements mixing and creating a new kind of environment? No, the heart exists and it was our ancestors who used it to float the island in the first place. Void magic is the reason Albion exhibits features you can't find in any other nation."

Wales wanted to deny it but the words died in his throat when he recalled the legends he heard about in Saxe-Gotha as well as the experience in the strange underground city. Just 'magic' couldn't explain any of that.

"Alright, say there is a heart. What does my father intend for it?"

"It's void magic. The same magic the founder used to bring about miracles on his own. If he manages to harness the heart, it stands to reason that he could do the same… become a god. The problem is that he is not a god, he isn't even a void mage. His trying to extract the heart is liable to drop Albion out of the sky and for that he must be stopped. If that means selling my soul to Cromwell so be it."

"Then where is the heart? If we can keep it from him…"

Largo sighed and shook his head. "Were it so easy. The heart isn't in a place, it's sequestered in a some kind of magical vault that will only come into being once a series of trials have been completed. There is no cheating the trial but you can brute force it by throwing enough people at it. I'll give you one guess what happens to every convict locked up in the dungeons. That's all I found out before I defected to Reconquista."

Wales swallowed hard, he didn't want to believe Largo's words but even before Reconquista was a thing, his father had been acting strangely. If he really was… no, he didn't have time to worry about that right now.

Now they had to secure the fortress first.

"That's quite a lot to think about general but for now give the order to your remaining men to surrender. I promise you will be treated as befit your station."

"Unnecessary boy, I'll share the same fate as my men. I just ask that you spare their lives."

"Very well, Saito?"

"I'll handle their processing. But if any of them resist then I'll put them down. I assume you don't want me hunting down those who fled through the breach in the wall?"

"Yes, leave them be."

"As you command." Saito bowed and left the office, issuing orders to the militia and cyborgs as he went.

Largo watched him go before turning to Wales and asking the question that had been on his mind. "If you don't mind, why did you go through all that trouble to break the walls when you already had a way into the fortress."

"The diversion had to feel real to draw as many troops to the wall as possible. With everyone there, the peasants would have an easier time capturing the rest of the fortress and locking Reconquista out. Also he said something about breaking down the wall to serve as a possible avenue of retreat for Reconquista. That as long as a losing army has an avenue of retreat they will choose to run instead of making a last stand and maybe routing the enemy instead."

"Huh… so that's how it is. Where did you find someone like that anyway? I know full well no commander like that exists on the royalists side."

"I didn't find him, he found me."

-line break

News of fall of the invincible fortress spread like wildfire. Cromwell's stealth destroyers arrived too late to do anything except pick up retreating Reconquista soldiers. The tales they told of miracle weapons and monsters in the shape of men who wouldn't die when you killed them drew attention from spies of other nations who relayed the news back to their masters.

No one who wasn't there in person knew what actually happened but what was clear was that the once invincible fortress of Midgand was no longer that. And it had been a peasant uprising that took it over.

From the hallowed halls of Romalia to the crowded feasting tables of Germania, the sudden upending of the status quo was the main subject of gossip.

(Londinium)

"What!? What do you mean Midgand's fallen!? That's impossible!" Cromwell raged and hurled his crystal goblet against the wall, shattering it and staining the wall red with the wine.

(Romalia)

"Your eminence, we have received several disturbing reports about the situation in Albion."

Pope Vittorio nodded but otherwise kept his gaze focused on the cityscape spread out before him. "If this is about the peasant uprising that brought down the invincible I already know about it. My stance hasn't changed, we will continue to observe. This does not concern us yet. I'm more interested in finding out who's supporting Cromwell from the shadows."

(Gallia)

"Master, Midgand has fallen."

"Is that so Sheffield? I wasn't aware that the royalists had forces in the area or that they were strong enough to capture it."

"No master, the royalists weren't involved it seems. Reports indicate that it was a peasant uprising that brought down the fortress and destroyed its walls. Some say that prince Wales was among them but those reports cannot be confirmed."

"Peasants? Peasants took down Midgand?"

"Yes sir. Shall I have Cromwell punished for such a failing?"

"Bwahahahah! No no… leave him be. Unexpectedness makes the game more interesting wouldn't you say?" Joseph of Gallia said as he moved a black pawn piece and knocked over a black rook.

"It is as you say master."

(Tristain)

Henrietta had heard the news and thought of Wales immediately. She didn't know what was happening on the floating continent but that would change soon. "A grand gesture huh… Agnes, do we have anyone available? I'd like someone to go to Albion and get a better understanding of the situation."

"I'll look into it your highness."

-line break

The sun had set and the cyborgs were hard at work clearing up the rubble left over from the battle. The militiamen were celebrating their victory with the fortress' wine stocks. Today they would celebrate their hard fought victory, tomorrow they would mourn their fallen.

Two men weren't part of the festivities, Inquisitor and prince stood on one of the undamaged sections of the wall, overlooking the revelry going on below them.

"You know, I thought you were going to go ahead and shoot even after I tried to stop you."

"If you were anyone else I might have done just that. But you are the leader of this little rebellion and one day you will be leader of this nation. And so I follow you."

"I don't feel like much of a leader. Caledfwylch did most of the work today, the sword moves my body more than I move it. And the plan that lead us to victory was again your effort. I didn't do much at all. Even Matilda contributed more. So why do you follow me?"

"You proved that when you stopped me from killing the general and his subordinate."

"Huh?"

"Call me naïve in this aspect but I believe a leader… a good leader must be able to look at an opponent and see more than just another enemy to cut down. I can't do that, I see an opponent and I look for the fastest way to kill them." Hunching over and resting his arms on a pile of sandbags, Saito looked upon the men with a melancholic expression.

"As a soldier, as a battlefield commander that serves me well, but there's no place for men like me in times of peace. It's why I won't be a part of your government once this war is over. I'll give my advice but I will not hold office… and you can't change my mind on that. That will be one order I will refuse."

"Are you sure I'm worthy of it though?"

"You are. It is up to you to remain worthy of my respect though. Relax Wales, today we've won a great victory so for now rest. Nobody knows what the morrow will bring so take your victories wherever you can find them."

Saito's expression grew stormy as he stared off into the horizon, thinking about Matilda's insistence that there was another him running around in Tristain… another him that was GDI.

* * *

Author's notes: Wales' speech is adapted from Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day statement to the allied expeditionary force.

Longest chapter yet. Was going to break it into two chapters at least but decided to leave it as one in the end.

Nod Saito force breakdown:

10 spectres (1 survived)

30 scorpions (2 survived)

40 raider buggies (0 survived)

40 attack bikes (1 survived)

18 stealth tanks (0 survived)

4 vertigo bombers (4 survived)

8 SAM turrets (Temple Prime hubless versions 0 survived)

30 squads of awakened (12 survived)

3 shadow teams (0 survived)

6 squads of tiberium troopers (2 survived)

Refineries here work like KW tiberium spikes, the ones that give 10/s instead of the TW versions.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 10: Tabitha

Saito held the wheel in a loose grip as the APC trundled across the scenic country side. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and there were blue skies as far as he could see. It was a nice change of pace from all the paperwork.

Now if only the interior was as peaceful.

"Oooh… what does this button do?" Saito and Louise sighed in unison as Kirche's voice floated into their ears.

"Saito, remind me again why we have to bring her along? Tabitha is fine but Zerbst… really?" Louise complained as she slammed her head against the dashboard.

"She did help with Fouquet so we do owe her for that… even if she did technically invite herself on that mission. Then there is the fact that she is the owner of the treasure maps." Saito replied as he turned the APC down a winding road towards the lake.

"Hhrrghhh stupid Zerbst, I can't believe she bought every map in the shop. How does she even intend to visit every one of them?"

"Probably by 'borrowing' Sylphid as usual. Oh well, we're almost at Lagdorian Lake, let's deal with the flooding and then get to treasure hunting." Saito shrugged and proceeded to drop off Guiche and Montmorency at her family villa before continuing onwards.

Summer vacation had just begun and classes were out, most students had returned to their families for the holidays. Louise had elected to remain at school due to her extensive family issues but without lessons and Siesta on leave as well, she went stir crazy in short order.

Saito himself needed a break, paperwork was a chore as always and advancing the zone initiative was problematic to say the least. Agnes and Henrietta were amenable to the idea especially after a demonstration of what he could offer, convincing the rest of the brass was more complicated.

For now, the Zone initiative was still in phase 1 which was really just upgrading the musketeers to zone raiders. Their numbers were too small and most nobles still overlooked them for being composed entirely of peasants. It was vexing how close minded they could be.

Introducing the GDI arsenal as a mercenary force or as the private guard of a noble was easy since the burden of maintenance lay on whoever built them up. But as soon as the topic of integrating them into the standing army came up, the burden would fall on Tristain and most of the nobility would shut it down.

Saito needed Henrietta's open support for the Zone initiative to enter phase 2, the creation of a new division entirely. But to do that he needed concrete evidence of what his new technology could offer otherwise she would lose credibility.

Once the new unit had proven themselves, probably against Reconquista, they would advance to phase 3, the complete overhaul and modernisation of the entire military.

Louise's boredom had given him the idea on how to proceed. A treasure hunt across all of Tristain using the APC for transport. A tracker was on board the vehicle recording their progress across the country and they would bring back a local souvenir from each place as added proof of the APC's ability to transport items and people faster and further than using horses or a standard caravan.

There was a slight snag in that Kirche's idea of a fun vacation was roughly the same thing and she cleaned out the shop, taking every last scrap of information before they arrived. She agreed to share as long as they helped out with the flooding issue in Gallia's countryside that Tabitha had to deal with first.

Louise was hesitant about it but Saito accepted immediately. Their 'treasure hunt' was more a sightseeing tour while performing community service anyway. Instead of hunting orcs and goblins, they'd be aiding in flood relief efforts _and_ would add another point in the APCs favour.

That it got him away from the paperwork was a bonus and he in no way, shape or form intended to dump everything on Agnes… honest.

As the APC pulled to a stop on a hill, Saito popped open the hatch and exited the vehicle. "We're here, everybody out. That means you Zerbst, quit poking around my ride, there's nothing inside for a spy."

"I AM NOT A SPY!" Kirche raged before abruptly shutting up when the devastation from the flooding could be seen. The green hills had given way to a waterlogged wasteland, the village that was supposed to be there had been washed away completely and the roofs of several houses could be seen floating on the water's surface.

"So, I get that Tabitha has a mission to kill the water spirit responsible for all the flooding but how exactly do we go about doing that?" Saito asked as the destruction stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Can't you just shoot it or blow it up? Military force solves everything doesn't it?" Louise replied snarkily.

"If I had an orbital ion cannon I could call on maybe, but I don't. Derf any ideas?"

"Don't ask me user, I'm a sword, I stab things. If it bleeds I can usually kill it but you ever tried stabbing water? Yeah…" Derflinger piped up from Saito's back before falling silent.

"Help villagers first." Tabitha dismounted from Sylphid and spoke in her usual quiet voice. There was a cold gleam in her eyes as she proceeded down the hill towards where the villagers were residing in makeshift tents.

"Ah hey! Tabitha wait up!" Kirche shouted when the blue haired girl started leaving them behind, chasing after her with Louise and Saito following behind.

The next few hours passed in the blink of an eye as the students used magic wherever they could to ease the villagers' suffering while Saito ferried supplies back and forth from the APC.

"Let's see, everyone has blankets, a warm meal and enough water to last awhile. Louise hasn't killed anyone with her cooking, I think we've done all we can here." Saito spoke while holding his partner at arm's length, her fists flailing uselessly at the air unable to hit her target.

"What do you mean by that stupid familiar! I'm a great cook!"

"Now now, your misguided confidence aside, we're here to help people not poison them." Saito ignored Louise's protests and took in the state of the camp. The mood was far better than it had been when they arrived but their situation remained dire all the same. If the floodwaters continued to rise, not even the camp would be safe.

"So… Tabitha, do you a plan for dealing with the water spirit?"

"Hit it until it dies." Tabitha spoke in a monotone that brooked no argument.

"How very direct." Saito shrugged and jimmied open a crate, he pulled out several masks and handed them out to the mages.

"These are rebreathers, if you get washed away or end up trapped underwater, they will allow you to breathe for up to 90 minutes. Just in case."

Kirche inspected the mask before wearing it, the gel underlayer moulded itself to fit her face and it was surprisingly light, if she didn't think about it, she might even forget it was there. "My, my, you come prepared for everything don't you."

"Never hurts to be prepared." He had finished assembling the Merlin and was busy attaching grenades wherever he could fit them.

"Still, I don't suppose we could try negotiating? Much as I love the direct approach, a little diplomacy wouldn't hurt."

"That wouldn't work user, spirits don't behave like you humans. Unless you have a pact with one, even get its attention is unlikely no matter how much you call out to it. The only way to draw it out…"

"Is to attack until it shows up personally huh."

-line break

Tossing another grenade into the churning waters, Saito watched as the resulting plume of water shift into a massive arm that rapidly came down on his position. Firing the Merlin at it, the arm exploded when the beam vaporised everything in its path.

As the mass of water came down as rain, they coalesced into ice spikes and peppered the area, threatening to impale him.

Hacking down any spike that came to close with Derflinger, he cut apart the water tendrils seeking to ensnare his legs and leapt away again. Firing the Merlin again, a blue beam cut across the lake and caused multiple steam explosions.

The churning waters erupted into a frenzy and a body began to rise out of the water, a giant made out of the befouled waters towering over everything. It staggered backwards when the top half of its torso was instantly evaporated by one of Louise's explosions. Ice and fire blasts slammed into what was left of it and the being collapsed back into the lake.

Saito glanced at the water surface again and noted that the churning had been reduced and the giant was reforming at a slower pace. "I think it's working. Keep hitting it!"

No sooner had he finished that sentence then the water surface swelled and a tidal wave struck him dead on, only by stabbing Derflinger into the ground as an anchor did he avoid being washed away. Breathing through the rebreather as he waited for the surge to end, he felt himself yanked out of the water when Sylphid grabbed him by his jacket's collar.

Calling out his thanks, he tossed the Merlin over his shoulder and started dropping more grenades into the lake before being deposited back on dry land. Cursing the fact that the Merlin wouldn't be able to recharge while wet and his stock of grenades was being depleted rapidly, his eyes were drawn to an orb of water that shot out of the lake and seemed to be aimed directly at him.

"Oh crap." Grasping Derflinger with both hands, he used the sword as a shield as a high-pressure jet of water shot at him. A bright light shot out of the blade and the water jet lost power upon contact, splashing to the floor harmlessly.

"What the?" The incredulity in Saito's voice was tangible.

"Oh hey user! I just remembered I can absorb magic. Not bad huh?" Derflinger's overly cheerful voice grated on Saito's nerves and his eyebrow started twitching.

"What. The. Hell. Do. You. Mean. You. Just. Remembered."

"Oh you know, I've been around for 6000 years, you forget things from time to time."

"How the heck do you forget something like being able to absorb magic!?" Any further bickering was cut off when the lake erupted again, this time instead of a featureless giant it was a giant copy of Saito.

"Gandalfr. Why do you attack us?" The spirit asked in a distorted copy of his own while continuing to fend off attacks from Louise, Kirche and Tabitha.

"We need to stop the flooding. People are being hurt by it." Saito was unfazed by the show of power and stared down the water spirit.

"The lives of mortals do not concern us, we will reclaim what was stolen."

"And how does flooding the land help?" Saito queried as he motioned for the others to stop attacking for the moment. The spirit of the lake was finally willing to talk, no sense in driving it off again. Time to negotiate.

"Once we have raised the water levels, all land will be submerged and our treasure will return to us."

"That will take centuries, if not millenniums. And you would destroy everything else just to get your property back!?"

"Time is off no consequence for us. Once we have retrieved our treasure, we will allow the water to recede. The world will continue as it is."

"Okay… lemme try this again. What could be so important that you would flood the entire world to retrieve it."

The spirit raised its hand and conjured up the image of a ring in its palm. "This is the ring of Andvari, it is an artefact that allows one to raise the dead by forcing spirits into a fresh corpse. We have guarded it ever since the mage known as Brimir entrusted it to us."

Ignoring the three gasps from the mages at the mention of their revered founder, the water spirit continued. "It was stolen from us by a wind mage while we were asleep and we shall reclaim it to prevent the abuse of its power."

Saito took a moment to put his thoughts in order as he came up with multiple avenues he could pursue in this negotiation and settled on the simplest one possible. "Alright, I understand your need to retrieve that ring but by the time you've flooded the world, the ring's power will definitely have been abused. Since you're willing to spend an eternity to retrieve that ring, how about you allow us to try retrieving it for you. If we succeed everyone wins, if we fail you don't lose anything, what's a few months compared to a few thousand years."

"Saito what are you doing!? You can't bargain with spirits!" Louise hissed at her familiar as he tried to negotiate.

"And you can't promise it anything either! They'll never forget and bad things happen to those who break their promises."

"Do we have a choice in the matter partner? I recall what the books said about spirits, they never lie. Do you really want to leave a ring that can reanimate the dead in the hands of someone mad enough to steal from a spirit but smart enough to actually succeed? Way I see it, we'll have to deal with it sooner or later so why not now. Raising the dead for any purpose never ends well."

"…I just hope you know what you're doing."

"So do I partner, so do I." Saito replied as they lapsed into silence while waiting for the water spirit to come to a decision.

"We find your suggestion acceptable Gandalfr. We will allow the water to recede. Should you die before our treasure is returned, we will raise the waters again." Having said its piece, the giant burst like a balloon and the water cascaded back into the lake.

Already the floodwater was beginning to go down and at the rate it was doing so, Saito estimated that the lake would return to its original state by dawn. After that would begin the difficult process of rebuilding.

-line break

It was with a heavy heart that Tabitha invited her… friends… over to her manor. After dealing with the water spirit, they needed a place to rest for the night and the manor happened to be in the area.

Making her way deeper into the manor, the plain white walls felt cold and unwelcoming. Even with the others occupying the main hall, the place lost none of its depressiveness. It hadn't been her home in a very long time and possibly never would again.

Knocking on the door at the end of the hall, there was no response just like there hadn't been one for the past five years. "I'm coming in mother."

Pushing it open, the room hadn't changed much since the last time she was here. It was still as spartan as she remembered it, a bed, a table and a chair, that was all the furniture there was in the room. An open window allowed a cool breeze in as the plain curtains fluttered gently in the wind.

The last rays of the sunset painted the room a warm orange and embraced a tired looking figure in their glow. "Who's there?"

Terrified eyes met Tabitha's and the woman clutched a small doll to her chest tightly. After wasting away for five years, she was skin and bones now, any beauty she once possessed had been worn away by the ravages of the poison.

Tabitha hated it, she hated the plain looking room, she hated the fact that the once proud woman she called mother had been reduced to this wreck, she hated the uncle that did this to her and most of all she hated her own powerlessness to do anything to fix things.

"It's me, mother."

"Who are you!? Are you a spy from the royal family? NO! I won't let you take my daughter!" Hugging the doll even tighter, the fear in her eyes faded away as it was replaced with the light of madness.

Tabitha smiled sadly as her mother's insanity reared its ugly head again. She didn't flinch when her mother picked up a glass of water and hurled it at her. The now empty cup bounced of her head and rolled on the floor.

It barely even hurt. More testament to how much of her strength had been sapped away.

"I have had enough of your accursed court! Just leave us alone!"

"…I will be leaving now, but I will see you cured. Until that day, please wait for me." Tabitha bowed and left the room before the tears could fall.

-line break

Louise and Kirche sat quietly on the sofa while Saito leaned against windowsill and stared out into the darkness. The good mood from resolving the water spirit issue had crashed and burned after hearing Percerin's explanation of their friend's situation.

After the death of the old king, a succession crisis had gripped Gallia. The crown would go to the older brother but it was the younger who enjoyed popular support. Despite placing his support behind his brother, the younger still wound up assassinated via hunting accident.

Unwilling to let things be, the faction supporting the elder tried offing his daughter as well. An invitation to a banquet, a glass of poison wine, a mother who willingly took the drink to spare her daughter.

And even all that wasn't enough. Suicide mission after suicide mission, that was to be the fate of the unfortunate child who had already been robbed of her parents. Sent out with zero support and training, the child prevailed, returning each time victorious but more broken than before.

Deeds that would have merited the awarding of a territory were brushed aside out of spite and the title of chevalier was only given with great reluctance. Even after five years nothing had changed, the missions kept coming, only halting when she was in school.

And they would keep coming until one of them finally lived up to the word.

"This is unfair. Tabitha shouldn't have to deal with this." Kirche's calm voice belied the raw anger burning beneath the surface at the sheer injustice.

"And what do you propose we do Kirche? The king of Gallia himself is the enemy." Louise spoke softly, her fists clenched tightly.

"I don't know… hey, Saito has all these new gadgets and what not, maybe he has something that can help?" Both girls turned to the familiar who just sighed.

"Poison isn't my speciality and there was magic involved so I don't know how much I can help, if at all." His honest reply caused both to hang their heads and sigh.

"There is one thing that bothers me though, Percerin, you said Tabitha's mother was only poisoned once?"

"Yes. Only during that banquet five years ago. Why?" The aged butler replied, unsure of where he was going.

"And her condition has been pretty much constant except for a few days every three months where it worsens before returning to 'normal'?"

"Yes. What are you suggesting?"

"…How sure are you that she was only poisoned once? From what I know, most poisons lead to a steady decline in condition or at least stabilizing at a point assuming they don't kill outright. They don't cause brief bursts of deterioration before restabilising, that sounds more like someone dosing her every now and then to maintain the effect."

"That's… not possible. Everything the madam consumes is thoroughly checked and tested. All the staff here have been vetted and are above suspicion. There is no way for her to be poisoned again… although King Joseph's aid does visit from time to time to check up on the Madam…"

"And I assume her visits happen to coincide with the madness getting worse?"

"Well yes. But she never interacts with the madam directly and we make sure everything she comes in contact with is replaced so there's no chance of poison there."

"What about magic?"

"To the best of my knowledge, the king's aide isn't a mage. Even if she is, she doesn't carry a wand of any sort."

Saito snorted lightly. "I highly doubt that. Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, every time? that's enemy action."

"So the king _is_ behind it all! That's proof isn't it? Can we do something about it now? Where's that bitch anyway, Flame likes his meat burnt." Kirche blurted out, unable to remain silent any longer and itching for something to direct her fury at.

"Calm down, all we have is a probable cause. Even if we brought this issue to another nation, they have no jurisdiction here, this is Gallia, the king's word is law. Tabitha is Gallian after all, this is an internal issue and short of going to war, there isn't much we can do about it." Saito shut her down before she could do something rash.

When Kirche went back to fuming in silence, Louise was the next to speak up. Addressing the butler with a calculating look, a plan was beginning to form inside her mind. "You said this house was like a prison for her… but is she free to leave?"

"Wha? Of course not! Her physical condition is-" Percerin sputtered before being cut off by Louise.

"I'm not asking if she can move, I'm asking if the king laid down an order for her to stay here."

"Well no. but-" The butler began again and was cut off once more.

"Excellent. Familiar! Ready the APC for transport. Make it comfortable!" Louise's order caused Saito to raise one eyebrow quizzically.

"What exactly do you have in mind partner?"

"Hehehe, behold my genius!" Puffing out her chest in pride, Louise lay out her masterpiece.

"Tabitha's mother is free to leave, it's just that her body can't handle a trip normally. So, if we put her in the APC we can bring her back to Tristain! Then her highness can grant asylum or we can hide her where the king will never find her!"

Silence engulfed the room once she finished speaking. Percerin was staring at her as though she was speaking an alien language he couldn't comprehend while Kirche and Saito both had blank faces.

"What?" Unable to bear the silence any more, Louise shouted if only to draw out a reaction.

"It's not a bad plan zero… but what about Tabitha? She is still sworn to serve Gallia as a chevalier, what's to stop the king from coming after her personally once he finds out her mother is missing?" Kirche questioned while holding the hope that Louise would have an answer for that.

"Grr don't call me that stupid Zerbst! Ahem. Tabitha will be free from her uncle because she owes me a life debt now. According to the laws set down by the founder, a life debt between two nobles takes precedence over any loyalty to any nation. Supposedly that was put in place to prevent nobles from having any excuse not to honour a debt but eh, if it helps us screw the king over…"

"A life debt!? When the heck did that happen!?"

"Earlier today. When _my_ familiar helped calm the water spirit and stop the flooding. She would have died if he wasn't there so she owes me her life now."

"That's… that's true I suppose. But what about school then? Her uncle will probably freeze her assets so there's no way she'll be able to afford the school fees anymore. B-but I suppose getting her free is worth it?"

"Nonsense, she'll continue schooling alright." Louise shot down Kirche's worry instantly.

"If she is to continue her studies, she will need a rich noble to sponsor her since the school doesn't have scholarships. Where are we supposed to find one that…" Saito halted when he saw the face splitting grin on Louise's face.

"Of course. How could I forget." Saito deadpanned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'm speaking to _Count_ Valliere right now. And with the casino, money isn't an issue. Exploiting all assets and loopholes to win… I have been a bad influence on you." He buried his face in his palm in mock shame, the grin spreading across his face mirroring his partner's own.

"What can I say partner, I learned from the best."

-line break

Tabitha watched quietly while Saito gently loaded her mother onto the vehicle, laying her down on a mattress inside, the doll still tightly clutched in her hands. A sleeping draught had been administered to knock her out for easy transport and all her belongings had already been tucked away.

The empty manor was even emptier now, Percerin, the maids and the groundskeeper had already left. They would go to ground lest Joseph's wrath fell upon them. What valuables that didn't possess any sentimental value, Tabitha had given them in lieu of pay, better than having them repossessed by her uncle at any rate.

The sun had yet to rise and a cold wind blew around them as they worked. Rubbing Sylphid's head as the dragon nudged her gently, she wondered if this would be it, the moment she would finally be free from her uncle's shadow.

After Louise had informed her of their plan, she had agreed hesitantly. The theory was sound, but doubts plagued her, what would happen if the king had her declared a traitor and ordered her arrest, what then?

Louise assured her that Tristain had no extradition treaty with Gallia and Saito had added that he knew a few trouble-shooters who could help her disappear. Despite all the things that could go wrong, this was still the best chance she had to be free.

Tabitha wasn't a fool, she knew she lived only because her uncle found her struggles amusing. Once he lost interest she'd be arrested and probably executed on trumped up charges. This was probably her one shot at securing a future for herself.

She gripped her staff tightly to reassure herself, now that departure was imminent, all the hope she'd locked away for five years was pushing to the surface. And the waiting was unbearable, fear of everything going wrong right at the end filled her heart.

But as the seconds and minutes ticked by, nothing happened. No army showed up to arrest them, no sudden monster attack happened to derail the plan, nothing but the sky beginning to lighten. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest any moment now from the sheer anxiety.

"That's it, everything's secure. Load up people, we're leaving once I leave a 'gift' for the aide." Saito motioned for the mages to enter the APC while he retrieved several mines from the weapons compartment.

Tabitha remained silent as Saito proceeded back into the house to plant the charges. They would demolish the entire building in a blaze of glory, erasing everything inside.

'Good, let it all burn.'

Once Sheffield showed up they would blow and hopefully finish her off. A letter would be left anonymously at the nearby village indicating that the house had been abandoned after the firestones buried beneath had become unstable and could blow at any time. It would find its way to the king eventually, but not before the aide's next scheduled visit.

Somehow though, Tabitha didn't think that would be enough to end her. She had met the woman in person only a few times over the years but the impression that something was off about her never changed.

She had never seen Sheffield use magic before but the sense of wrongness and danger surrounding her never went away. In a way, she was more terrifying than every monster she'd ever put down in the past although she couldn't identify why that was the case.

In fact, now that she thought about it, only one other person had ever given off a similar feeling and that was the Valliere familiar. The first time she played chess against him on the roof, she was struck by the feeling that she was face to face with a storm, unpredictable and with the potential for great and terrible chaos.

That feeling had faded somewhat as time passed and she got to know him better. But considering what he was capable of and the fact that Sheffield gave off the same feeling except more… evil… she didn't know what to make of it yet, only that it left a sense of disquiet in her.

Her attention was drawn to the door as Saito emerged from the manor, having planted the gifts. He was speaking to Derflinger again and she could just barely make out the words.

"…Elven magic user. Bad stuff, really bad stuff."

"Is there a cure for this… potion of lost heart?"

"Ah bollocks, I'm not used to trying to remember so much."

"Try. Please."

"Hmm… unless I'm mistaken there's three parts to the potion. The physical poison that attacks the mind, magic that targets the most precious memories to subvert them and magic to keep the poison in the body so the mind can't heal. The elves might have an antidote but there's not much we can do unless we go ask them."

"Well damn, so much for a quick fix… hang on. Two parts magic?"

"That's right old chap."

"Don't you absorb magic?"

"Yes I… huh, you know I never thought of that. User, I've never even attempted anything like that before it might work or it might not."

"Cure?" Tabitha had walked over to the familiar and directed a questioning gaze at him.

"I don't know. Derflinger can absorb magic, since the poison is part magic he might be able to absorb that and nullify the poison. But your mother is a noble, I don't know how he'll affect her if he starts absorbing her magic as well."

"Try." Conveying her determination in that one word, she drew a small sigh and a nod from Saito.

"Very well, but if things look off I'm stopping."

Heading over to where her mother lay, trapped in some nightmare, Saito unsheathed his sword and laid it on her while she stood over them like a sentinel. "I'm usually against untested medical procedures but desperate times call for desperate measures. Here goes nothing."

Before the watchful eyes of everyone, the blade began to glow and slowly but surely, her breathing began to ease. They watched spellbound as some colour returned to her pallid face and she seemed slightly stronger than before.

"Derf?" Saito asked once the blade stopped glowing.

"I've done all I can user. Isolating and absorbing the foreign magic is hard work you know, haah… I'm tired. You owe me a good fight for this." The sword replied in a tired tone.

"So… is she… cured?" The million-dollar question.

"Not yet, but she's on the road to recovery. I can't absorb anymore magic without hurting her but her body should overcome it on its own. Just a matter of time now." And the million-dollar answer drew sighs of relief and laughs from everyone.

"Oh! Isn't that great Tabitha?" Unable to contain her excitement, Kirche wrapped the smaller girl in a big hug and started to dance on the spot.

"Alright, alright, we can celebrate once we're back in Tristain yes? Let's get while the getting's good, next stop, Count de la Valliere's estate." Saito wiped away the sweat from his brow and headed to the driver's seat, preparing for departure.

Once the door sealed behind the mages, the APC kicked into gear and drove off, Tabitha spared her old home one last glance before looking away. That place held nothing but bad memories, time to leave it behind.

Glancing at her mother, she was shocked when her eyes briefly fluttered open and met her own. instead of the madness from earlier, there was recognition. "…Char…lotte…"

Tabitha's mouth fell open in surprise as her mother acknowledged her for the first time since that terrible night. Her mother returned to slumber immediately after as the sleeping draught reasserted itself.

The princess of Gallia herself was left with a small genuine smile on her face. Perhaps the future was bright after all.

* * *

Author's notes: The life debt is based on the practice of ransom during the middle ages. Noblemen would be captured and only released once the ransom has been paid. And despite being from opposing sides, they could be civil to one another, it was just business, nothing personal.

On the topic of tactics though, most of my experience with the game is in campaign, skirmish and multiplayer don't appeal to me. Whenever I play nod, tactics usually boil down to strength in numbers since their units are so cheap. Scorpion/venom rush is a thing if the mission allows turtling and for missions that don't, like Kane's tower, black hand + rocket squad rush = win even on hard mode. To me, the factions break down this way.

Infantry superiority: NOD

Armour superiority: GDI

Air superiority: scrin.

And cookies for anyone who can guess who Sheffield actually is.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 11: Twisted

"Fuhi?" The lead orc snorted in confusion when they lost sight of their prey. Stamping its feet in frustration, it's empty stomach loudly protested all that wasted effort. The disappointed groans of its compatriots echoed its feelings.

First their sacking of a village for food had failed when the villagers spotted them coming and fled. Then, when their scouts had caught sight of a few children lost in the woods, the hungry pack had come out in force to hunt them only for the children to vanish into thin air.

As the orcs started shoving one another in their rage, the ground collapsed beneath their feet. The thin layer of dirt held together with earth magic gave out and dropped them into a spike pit.

As the cries of the impaled orcs rose to the skies, their rancid bodies were given a cleansing bath of fire that melted the flesh from their bones. Once the crackling of the flames was the only sound left, a gust of wind blew by to remove the unpleasant stench of burnt flesh.

Saito hopped out of the tree he was hiding in and peered over the edge. Ashes, melted bronze and a few scattered bone fragments was all that was left of the orc raiding party. "Well… they're definitely dead now. Guiche, you mind filling in the pit?"

The blond noble waved his wand and a shudder ran through the earth before fountains of dirt erupted out of the pit, rapidly filling in the cavity.

"Okay, now that that's taken care of, the villagers should be able to return." Saito nodded to himself as the other nobles stepped out from where they were hidden.

"Why are we hunting orcs anyway? Isn't this a job for whichever noble is in charge of this land?" Kirche complained once they had assembled.

"The marquis can't be bothered to deploy soldiers to deal with the orc infestation. Too bothersome he said. Once this report reaches her highness, he won't be marquis for very much longer." Louise finished penning down her observations and slipped the notebook back into her pocket.

"That's… a bit harsh isn't it?"

"Not at all. Nobles have a duty to perform, it's what set's them apart from just someone able to do magic. Any noble who refuses to do their job doesn't deserve their title and it ought to be taken away. Her highness agrees on this." Louise sneered at the thought of such gross dereliction of duty. Her mother would have a fit if she knew about this.

"Treasure." Tabitha's quiet voice dragged them back to the task at hand before they could be side tracked again. With her mother safely secured in Louise's manor and being taken care off by Saito's clone garrison, she wasn't plagued with worries for the first time in forever and wanted to make the most of it. Laughing sheepishly, Kirche pulled out the map and unfolded it.

"Okay, let's see… within the abandoned temple the orcs were using as their former hideout, there should be an altar where a priest once stashed a legendary treasure. The Brisingamen, a legendary gold necklace that can protect someone from all disasters…"

-line break

"Well, that was a complete waste of time." Saito chucked the worthless brass necklace back into the box as sighs of disappointment greeted him.

Kirche was filing her nails disinterestedly while trying not to allow the frustration to get to her. Tabitha was reading a book as usual and Guiche had flopped onto his back groaning about how he should have stayed at Montmorency's villa, her atrocious cooking be damned. Louise was the only one pleased since she at least had something to report to Henrietta about.

"That's seven busts out of seven maps… what's the next one? Heck, is there even a single legitimate one inside that pile?" Guiche complained aloud, drawing a look of ire from the maps' owner.

"I did tell you most of them would be fake but there might be a real one in there. You're the one who asked to come along. Anyways, next we have the dragon's raiment, something that allows you to fly without the use of magic once you put it on. It's located near a village called Tarbes."

"Ug, sounds like another hoax."

"Hmmph, if you don't like it, you're free to return to Montmorency, I'm sure she'll love to have you try out her cooking again."

Guiche's face turned green and he changed his tune immediately. "No, no. Hoaxes are good, very good! Let's go find that dragon's raiment! No more food poisoning for me ahahahahah!"

Trailing off into demented laughter at the end, Saito shot him a commiserating look as he too had to deal with Louise's complete inability to cook. Idly poking at a destroyed pot, it should have held their dinners, instead Louise had gotten by him and attempted to make a stew.

How she managed to melt a hole through a pot made out of solid steel using nothing but the contents of a standard GDI ration pack he'd never know.

"Tarbes eh? That's Siesta's hometown unless I'm mistaken. Look on the bright side, once we get there we'll probably have actual food instead of combat rations." Saito commented to a round of cheers.

GDI rations were designed to keep many a soldier on their feet through extended combat deployments. Unfortunately, budget cuts meant severe cutbacks to the taste division. The end result was a nutritious, easy to prepare meal affectionately known by the men as battery acid and wet carboard.

-line break

"It's a fake." Siesta's blunt response dashed the hopes of the aspiring treasure hunters yet again. Despite showing up unannounced, the maid had been kind enough to fix a decent meal for them but when questioned about the raiment, she instantly crushed them all.

"That's disappointing. Still can we take a look at it? Since we're already here and all." Louise requested, causing Siesta's expression to turn troubled.

"I suppose it's fine. The dragon's raiment is a family heirloom of sorts but it doesn't work. Come, I'll show you to it." Dusting off her dress as she stood, she led the way to a cave on the outskirts of the village, the slightly less eager but still curious party following behind.

"It belonged to my grandfather. He just appeared with it one day, said he flew it here from the east. Nobody believed him though, when they tried getting him to fly it he just gave a lot of excuses and said it couldn't fly anymore." Siesta shook her head ruefully as she recalled the strange kindly old man she called grandpa.

"After working hard in the fields managed to save enough money to pay a noble to place a permanence spell on it. Then, well he had it moved to this cave saying something about always having the dragon's raiment face the rising sun."

Once they arrived, Guiche and Kirche sighed in unison, disappointed by what they found. Tabitha was more interested about the origin of such a construct of metal and Louise was just wondering about the similarities between the raiment and the Firehawks Saito had shown her.

As for the familiar himself, a low whistle of appreciation was his only response as he stared at the plane with an appraising eye.

"Is… is this some kind of oversized toy?" Guiche wondered aloud as he rapped his knuckles against the cold steel.

"Of course this thing can't fly, it's wings can't even move. It's larger than a dragon but without flappable wings it won't be flying anywhere. The metalwork is amazing though."

Credit where credit was due, the metal and techniques used to build the raiment was beyond anything Guiche had ever seen. It put the works of some master craftsmen to shame and he privately doubted that his own father would be able to produce anything close to this level of quality even with magic.

"Yeah, there's no way this thing can fly… maybe it glides? I recall seeing some peasants playing on something similar back in Germania, they would have these great pieces of cloth held together by a metal frame and then they could use it to soar in the air after pushing off from a height. I don't know how it being all metal will affect it though." Kirche commented as she wracked her brain on how something like this could fly without magic.

"This, is an antique. A F14 here of all places? No, wait… that's not quite right, the design is a bit off." Saito commented before placing his hand against the fuselage. His runes glowed dimly as fragmented pieces of information flitted through his head.

"VX14 JT? I am unfamiliar with this model." Pulling away from the jet, curiosity burned within him. The information provided by the runes were incomplete, disjointed and he couldn't make sense of much of it.

"So you do know what it is. It's from your world isn't it?" Louise asked.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that, it's too badly damaged for even the runes to give me all the information on it. I can confirm that it is definitely not native to Halkeginia."

"Eh damaged? But… but grandfather always took care of it! And I know the permanence spell has kept it in the same condition for years!" Siesta protested and tried searching for what defect Saito was referring to. For all her efforts, only smooth unmarred steel met her eyes.

"The damage is on the inside… did your grandfather leave anything else behind?"

"Umm, the only noteworthy things were a strange sword, his diary and the tombstone he crafted. I can fetch the sword and diary now if you'd like, the tombstone is just outside." Siesta offered.

"Please do, in the meantime, do you mind if I get inside it? I want to check out the interior."

"I suppose that's okay. Please be careful." Curtseying, Siesta turned and left to fetch the items. Saito turned his attention back to the jet and ran his hand along the smooth armour plating before hauling himself up and into the cockpit in one smooth motion.

Taking a moment to survey the controls, he found the interior to be surprisingly minimalistic. He wasn't expecting the controls to be exceedingly complex like some of GDI's more exotic aircraft but he wasn't quite expecting it to be so barebones either.

Two hand grips attached to the sides of the cockpit with some degree of motion in place of a joystick, several buttons and screens to the front and foot pedals of all things. "Where the hell is everything? How the heck are you supposed fly this thing and not crash?"

Poking around some more, he found several puncture holes near the underside of the cockpit. Digging inside with a knife, he pulled out several small metal flechettes from where they were embedded.

"How did this end up here? I don't see an entry point." Closing his fist around the projectile, his gandalfr ability activated and fed him some information about it.

"Ammunition for a Vorona Steelshot Flak Cannon, effective against aircraft and vehicles. So… this is from the bad old days of the allies-soviet wars. Still doesn't explain how it got here." Pocketing the flechettes, he got out of the cockpit just as Siesta returned. Guiche and Kirche had gotten bored and left, managing to drag Tabitha along with them, only Louise remained in the cave with them.

"So?"

"It's complicated."

"Of course it is. Nothing's ever simple with you." Louise sighed and watched as Saito inspected Siesta's grandfather's sword.

"Mass production type beam katana, power supply missing. You know, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have no idea what my nation's role was during the war but you'd think I'd remember something like this being invented and fielded on the frontlines."

Shaking his head, he took a few practice swings with the blade and found it to be perfectly balanced. An archaic weapon fused with cutting edge technology, a simple concept taken to the logical extreme.

The blade was nothing more than a super sharp oversized heating element. When power was fed into it, it would become white hot and enhance the cutting power by melting through anything the blade itself couldn't cut. And he liked that idea a lot.

"User… I know what you're thinking and if you try to heat me up with a fire spell or something I will never speak to you again." The sword on his back called out just as he was entertaining the very idea.

"You sure? It'd give you even more style…"

"Tempting but no. Oi oi, I mean it user. Don't go modifying me, this sword is au naturel."

"Fine…" Saito said despondently as he shelved his dreams for creating the ultimate sword… temporarily. He'd raise it again when he found something to bribe Derflinger with. Besides, he had other ways of upgrading Derflinger… even if he didn't like those methods very much.

Returning he katana to Siesta, he decided to take a look at the tombstone before checking the diary.

"My grandfather handcrafted it, the words on it are in a foreign language and nobody has ever been able to read them. I don't know what they-"

"I can read them." Saito cut her off and knelt to give the stone a closer inspection. The wind and rain had worn away some of the etching but he could still read the words just fine.

"Navy ensign Sasaki Takeo, eternal warrior of the rising sun, rests in another world."

"What?" Siesta's eyes widened when Saito easily read out the words.

"Should have seen it sooner, Siesta, you take after your grandfather, don't you? Black hair, black eyes, your grandfather would have had the same right?"

"I… yes, how did you know?"

"The words are written in Japanese, your grandfather was from my homeland. How he arrived I do not know it's a shame I can speak to him in person." Saito stood and saluted, observing a moment of silence before stepping back.

'At least he had a long and peaceful life here in Halkeginia in the end, fortune smiled upon him.' Saito shook his head and resisted the urge to laugh at the sheer coincidence of another Japanese man winding up in Halkeginia after cheating death.

If the damage to the jet was anything to go by, he should have been fatally wounded either by being shredded by the shrapnel or in the resulting crash.

Instead, he was transported to another world to live out the rest of his days in peace. Dumb luck or divine providence, Saito supposed it didn't matter in the end.

"Do you want me to try fixing the thing? I need to call in a rig for this but it should work." Saito offered the wonderstruck maid who shook her head in the negative.

"Um it's up to you now. In his will, grandfather left the dragon's raiment to whoever can read the inscription on his tombstone. Since you're the only one who can, that means the raiment is yours now."

Saito raised and eyebrow at that. "Just like that?"

"Yes. It's quite famous and some people worship it I suppose but it's really just sitting here collecting dust. Um, he did request that the raiment be returned to the king if possible but I don't know which king-"

"Emperor. When he came from, it would have been emperor. But, I can't return it, I have no way back and the empire of Japan ceased to exist long ago."

"Oh." They lapsed into silence as Saito dropped bombshell after bombshell, leaving Siesta at a loss for words until Louise broke the spell.

"So partner, will you get it to fly?"

"I'll try, the insides are pretty mangled if the runes are reading it correctly. I don't have the blueprints for this but the rig should be able to work its magic. If it can repair captured biomechanical alien husks, it should work on a fighter jet. Just give me a moment to call it in."

-line break

Active mission day 8:

So bored. No sign of any gaijin for three days now, captain says it's for the best, we keep the element of surprise. I guess he's right, duty comes first. We reach Vladivostok tomorrow, I'll see action then.

Active mission day 10:

The emperor will be pleased, our strike on the on the oil derricks went perfectly. Idiot soviet barbarians didn't know what hit them, once we bypassed their tesla towers through the air, their flak cannons were useless when we hit them from the sea.

Active mission day 16:

This is it, today we break their grip on the pacific. Their communications are gone, their supply lines cut, all that's left is the send the fleet to a watery grave. Captain says we're just waiting on the shinobi to disable what's left of their air defences before we go in. Won't be long now.

Active mission day 17:

Captain got hit. Those barbarians were hiding flak troopers inside the hospitals. Soviet reinforcements are on the way, the fleet needs to be sunk now or this mission is a failure. The commander has ordered the remaining squad members to sortie against the enemy lines. We need to draw out whatever infantry they still have hidden so the shinobi can go to work. The solar eclipse is in a few hours, we move then. I do not think I will survive this. Ten thousand years of glory to the emperor. Long live the empire.

Active mission day 18?

Am I dead? I don't have an answer for that. Flak trooper hit me on the way out. Controls jammed, flew straight into the eclipse and then managed a landing in a field of flowers. The people here are strange, I do not speak their language and they dress funny. Is this heaven? It's too nice to be hell but so strange at the same time.

There are two moons.

Day ?

I've lost track of the years. Dug out the diary after so long. I'm an old man now. I don't think I'll ever see Japan again. That's okay, I've found my peace in this world. I only regret that I couldn't do more for the emperor. Perhaps one day, one of my countrymen will arrive here much like I did, I think I shall leave the raiment to them.

-line break

Saito snapped the diary shut and returned it to his pocket, there'd be time to look through it again later. Night had fallen and Agnes was due to show in a few minutes with more information about the mission.

It was three days after discovery of the dragon's raiment and Saito and Louise were back at the mansion. They had split from the rest when a message had come from the palace requesting their immediate return.

Details were sparse but there was no mistaking the urgency in the radio message. They were to return to the mansion post haste and pack for a trip.

While they returned with the APC, Kirche and Tabitha had elected to continue on with the treasure hunt. Guiche had chosen to remain in Tarbes to sample the local delicacies and Saito had tasked him with directing the rig when it arrived.

Perking up when one of the shadows moved, Saito moved to greet the hooded figure as she slipped through the open gate. "Good evening chevalier."

"Good evening to you too, where's the Valliere?" Agnes replied as she pulled down the hood of her travelling cloak.

"Right here. What's the situation?" Louise called out from where she was stuffing more objects into an already oversized pack.

"Are you aware of what's been happening in Albion?"

"Not really, we've been off the grid for a bit but I heard there was heavy action at Midgand." Saito mentally went through all the rumours he'd come by. Nothing concrete, just some talk about Reconquista being hit with miracle weapons of some sort.

"Your information is out of date, Midgand fell four days ago."

"So the royalists are finally winning? It's about time. Her highne-Henrietta should be pleased with this."

"It's not that simple Count. The royalists are still holed up in Newcastle, Midgand fell to a peasant uprising." Agnes spoke grimly as confusion spread across both Saito and Louise's faces.

"Our intelligence is spotty at best but we can confirm that this uprising is being backed by an unknown party supplying never before seen weapons. They've declared their intention to depose both Reconquista and the crown to form a new state."

"That's disturbing." Louise vocalised the thought running through their minds.

"It gets worse. Prince Wales is the leader of this revolt and the royalists are split down the middle between those loyal to his father and those who believe in him. And… I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not but some of Reconquista's officers have defected to fight under Wales if it means removing the old king from power."

"That's impossible. Wales would never betray Albion, there must be some kind of mistake." Louise vehemently denied.

"Unfortunately there isn't, Wales said as much when he met the princess in person a few days ago. He finds his father unfit to lead and intends to replace him for the sake of Albion." Agnes shook her head in slight exasperation at the massive security breach that happened on her watch.

"I don't know how he did it but he made it to the royal palace, bypassed every one of our guards, spoke to the princess and then returned to Albion in one night. He's convinced the princess of the justness of his cause and that his new allies are trustworthy. Me? I don't buy it at all." Handing over a scroll of parchment, Saito unfurled it to reveal a royal decree naming them as Tristainian ambassadors.

"We need you to head to Albion to ascertain the situation. The prince should still be in Midgand but our agents report that he might be headed for Newcastle soon. Reconquista's forces are massing for a final assault on the royalist keep and whatever issues he has with his father I suppose he'd want to settle it in person." Agnes retrieved a finely crafted ring and handed it to Louise.

"This is the water ruby, her highness has entrusted it to you. Show it to the prince as proof of your identity. Keep it safe and on you at all times."

Louise accepted the ring with slight trembling, her eyes were wide as saucers after being handed a national treasure so casually. "O-of course. I'll protect it with my life."

"I would have preferred to send our resident trouble shooters but they have their hands full with the local rat infestation. You two are the only other asset we have right now."

"Other?"

Her expression soured and distaste was written all over her features as she answered Saito's question. "Yes… other… the captain of the griffin knights has completed his bandit subjugation in the north and _volunteered_ to personally investigate Albion."

"Eh!? Viscount Wardes is there!?"

"Yes." Agnes curt reply held no small amount of disdain for the viscount.

"So I take it he isn't clean then."

"We don't know yet. His record is spotless… too much so if anything. No red flags but I'd watch my back all the same. He's gone to the Newcastle for his investigations and isn't aware of you being sent so chances of you running into him aren't _that_ high... as long as you make it to the prince before he leaves the fortress."

Saito nodded and filed that information away for future reference. "I'll keep that in mind. Do we have any support on this mission?"

"None I'm afraid. Most of our agents in Albion evacuated when the civil war started turning in Reconquista's favour. You're on your own."

"Understood. We'll deploy in a Firehawk once launch preparations are complete."

-line break

The Firehawk levelled out after a near vertical descent before gently setting down on a grassy plain. As the canopy opened, Saito hopped out and helped a dizzy Louise to the ground. Both were dressed in plain garb having ditched their regular attire for the sake of blending in.

Saito took a moment to rearrange Louise's hair and made sure the facial prosthesis was secure before stepping back and admiring his handiwork. After a quick makeover, she was completely unrecognizable, his only gripe was that she had refused to allow him to install several contacts to mask her eye colour.

"D-don't do that again… I think I'm going to be sick." Louise started to berate Saito before dashing towards a nearby bush to empty her stomach.

"Sorry about that partner, Firehawks aren't equipped with stealth, the only way to avoid detection is to use the stratofighter boosters. We're here at least." Saito shrugged and began pulling the camouflage netting over the fighter. Not quite a stealth generator but it'd work… hopefully.

"Why can't we take an airship like normal people?" Louise complained as she straightened up and glared at Saito.

"They're too slow and everyone will see us coming. This way we can investigate quietly first just in case the prince isn't himself. You have the ring secure?"

"Yes of course I- why are you looking at me like that? I don't like that look. That's the I've got an insane plan look." Louise started backing away hesitantly as a devious glow came to her familiar's eyes.

"According to the map, Midgand would normally be a full day's walk from here. That is unacceptable." Closing the distance between them in an instant, he picked up the tiny girl tossed her over his shoulders and began to sprint.

"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN NOW! SAITOOO!" Louise screamed frantically and beat her tfists against Saito's back as her deranged familiar continued his mad dash in the direction of the fortress.

"What!? I can't hear you over the sound of the wind. You want me to go faster? Okay!" Laughing maniacally, Saito fitted one of his knuckledusters onto his free hand and felt the gandalfr boost kick in, further increasing his pace.

"SAITO!" Louise's screaming echoed across the empty countryside alongside Saito's mad cackling.

-line break

"I hate you. I hate you so much."

"Aw… I love you too little sister." Saito gleefully patted the irate Louise on her head, safe in the knowledge that she couldn't start exploding him while they were in the centre of the uprising's stronghold.

Gaining entry to Midgand was simple enough, the fort had its doors opened to anyone seeking refuge from the civil war or intending to join the rebel cause, not that there was much of the fort available.

Large portions of the fortress still lay in ruins and construction zones were everywhere. Several barracks had been converted to temporary housing for the homeless and a makeshift clinic and food district had been set up.

Getting into the off-limit zones was an issue, there weren't any guards around but there were a few strange stone statues posted as sentinels everywhere. And the command centre happened to be one of those areas.

The feeling that he was being watched never left and Saito theorised the statues were some sort of golem responsible for surveillance and security. There was the nagging sensation that he should recognise the golems but he couldn't place them.

Without a way to bypass them quietly, the duo whiled their time away speaking to the various people to get an idea of the situation. Posing as a pair of siblings from the north, most were willing to shed some light on the situation.

Their efforts had borne fruit in abundance, already the report would be several pages long and they hadn't even met the prince yet. There were a few interesting tidbits here and there that reeked of the fantastic.

The prince recently gaining a magic sword that granted invincibility in battle.

A hero appearing to halt an unjust execution and sparking the uprising after crushing the Reconquista party singlehandedly.

The militia being equipped with automatic muskets among other fancy new weapons.

That last one worried Saito a lot.

He could excuse automatic weapons as the result of wartime engineering but some of the other things sounded disturbingly like rocket launchers and tanks.

Thus far he hadn't seen anything to confirm or deny those whispers but without getting into the restricted sections of the fortress, he didn't think he'd be able to conclusively prove it one way or another.

"Now what? We've done all we can and the prince has gone to Newcastle for negotiations." Louise muttered as she stared at the overcast sky. With the sun setting and storm clouds blowing in, any further scouting would have to be put on hold.

"Now, we head for Newcastle. With any luck we'll make it there before the rain starts." Shrugging as he replied, he was slightly miffed that they had managed to miss the prince by a full day and he wouldn't be back any time soon.

"…I refuse to be a sack of potatoes again." Folding her arms and declaring her intention to never participate in that form of transportation again, Louise glared defiantly.

"Hmm? How's your flight magic?"

"…"

"Yeah, thought so. It's potato or stratofighter, your choice."

"…I hate you." Louise sighed as her shoulders drooped, accepting the inevitable.

"So you've said."

-line break

"He won't see reason. Damn it, is there no other recourse but to fight?" Wales slammed his fist into the wall of his quarters while the inquisitor fiddled with a small gadget.

"There's still time to avert it."

"I will not have my own father assassinated."

"If you insist. There are other ways to deal with it I suppose. The royalists are split about fifty-fifty, have those that support you make for Midgand now. Whoever remains will be hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by Reconquista when they make their final push. Your father will either escape and lose his power or stay and die fighting." Saito paused his tinkering to regard the prince.

"That's one possibility anyway. We could also drug him with a sleeping potion and kidnap him. By the time anyone notices what's going on it'll be too late. We can always blame it on Reconquista."

"That… could work. Can we trick the ambassador though? Wardes of the lightning has the reputation of being damned near impossible to fool."

"I don't see why not. The Reconquista fleet is already massing nearby, all we need to do is spirit the old king away and bomb the palace. He 'dies' and this infernal doom and gloom gets replaced with righteous anger at the vile rebels who dared to commit regicide. If you play it right, you might be able to get the few holdouts to join your cause."

"Such deception doesn't sit right with me."

"All warfare is deception." Saito tossed the finished gadget to Wales and instructed him to put it on.

"It's a prototype neural interface I made. It'll translate your actions over to one of the cyborg decoys while you get to see and hear everything it does. Take some time to get used to it, it'll be needed for tomorrow's meeting with the Tristainian ambassador."

"I understand using a decoy for meeting with my father or some of the more suspect nobles, but Wardes? Is that really necessary?"

"Just to be on the safe side. I think I told you already that I used to be fate squad, assassinating targets during one to one meetings is pretty standard play and I'll be damned if you go out like that." The inquisitor closed his eyes as he recalled some of his more daring assassinations of corrupt GDI officials.

"Besides, there's always the chance Reconquista might take the chance to drop a few cannon shells on our position. I'd prefer you not taking unnecessary risks, especially since I won't be there, the evacuation routes need to be secured in person."

"If you insist. I'm more worried about my father though, there's something off about him. I'm not sure if he'll go quietly even after we've kidnapped him and keeping him drugged for the rest of his life isn't a viable solution."

"It's the eyes isn't it? They seem dead for lack of a better term, it doesn't jive with the rest of his actions." Furrowing his brows as he played back the meeting earlier, the king had gone on a long tirade about how the heart of the void would be the salvation of Albion. It was a truly impassioned speech except his eyes held no life to them.

Almost like he was a puppet dancing on a string. It wasn't the same as the scrin's mind control he'd seen back on Earth but some of the signs were there. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that the king wasn't in full control of his actions.

"You think he's being controlled?"

"I don't know what to think. First he's content with allowing the revolt to reach this level without doing anything then I find out he's been dedicating all his resources to finding the heart, which may not even exist." Wales spat out the words and smiled bitterly.

"Let's assume for a second he is being controlled. How would things change." The inquisitor shuffled the pieces around in his mind, trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with missing and overlapping pieces.

Wales snorted before replying. "Well then there's someone out there with enough power to subvert a nation, but willing to let it tear itself apart over a legend."

"And if the legend is true?" Saito's question left them both in silence as the prince quietly contemplated the ramifications of the heart existing in the hands of a hostile power.

"Well if my father is telling the truth, the heart grants any mage the ability to wield the void like the founder and control over wind stones… all of them. Supposedly my ancestors used it to float the island by forcing the wind stones buried in the earth to discharge simultaneously and liberate Albion from gravity, then void magic kept the island from disintegrating. Ah damn, there are wind stones buried all over Halkeginia."

"So whoever holds the heart could reshape the entire world at their whim… that's a little disturbing."

"You have a knack for understatements."

"It's just speculation for now until we have more proof. Reconquista is the pressing concern, their forces are approaching critical mass, they won't wait much longer."

-line break

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Louise asked as Saito practically dragged them to the meeting. It wasn't due to start for awhile but the former GDI general was uncharacteristically jittery.

"I am not in a… sorry. It's the atmosphere of this place. I don't like it at all." Saito snapped before quieting and taking a deep breath to rein in his emotions.

"The royalists are preparing for a last stand, it reminds me too much of my final battle before you summoned me. I just want to meet the prince, get the truth and leave." Schooling his features into a blank face, Saito was grateful that he was still wearing his facial prosthesis when Louise had ditched her own. It made hiding his actual expressions much easier.

"We're not going to help?"

"With evacuation efforts maybe, not with the battle unless we get pulled into it. We're here as observers and the princess hasn't given us any orders on which side to support."

"But the enemy is Reconquista!"

"Maybe, but helping royalists puts the prince at a disadvantage since that would leave his father's supporters with more power. This, is why I hate politics, things get messy real fast." Saito exhaled explosively and glanced at the sky.

The storm clouds still hadn't cleared up and rain was falling intermittently. Visibility was poor and the gunpowder wet, the ball was in Reconquista's court and it felt like the entirety of Newcastle was holding their breath, waiting for the hammer to fall.

It was sickening.

The one bright side was that the captured royalist super battleship was nowhere in sight. Newcastle's walls would hold for a time against the standard ship mounted guns fielded by Cromwell but they would crumble in an instant before the Lexington's onslaught.

Saito suspected that was what they were waiting for. Once it arrived the slaughter would begin. Although that raised the question of where the hell it was, odd that the fleet was just waiting around while the flagship was missing.

Uncomfortably adjusting Derflinger's sheath, he resisted the urge to quicken his pace again in consideration for Louise. The sooner they met the prince and left the better, and if that meant they wouldn't need to deal with Wardes any longer all the better.

They had the misfortune of running into the viscount the night before right after entering Newcastle. He had graciously offered to share his accommodations out of consideration for his fiancé and her guard.

The general was conflicted on how the heck he should feel about it all. On the one hand, Louise was a noble and arranged marriages were commonplace. But on the other, she was still just a child, societal norms be damned, the viscount was at least ten years her senior.

Then there was the look in Wardes eye's when he glanced at Louise. There was hunger there, not love, not lust… just hunger. That set off all sorts of warning bells despite his seemingly benign actions.

"Let's just hurry to the chapel. With any luck the prince will already be there. Why are we even meeting in a chapel anyway?"

"It's neutral ground of course. It's blasphemy to even think about violence on holy ground. Even if Cromwell himself shows up in person, there will be no bloodshed. Didn't your world have something similar?"

"Well at one time that was the theory. Somewhere along our history that went out the window and churches and the like became valid targets. If you're willing to destroy entire hospitals just to deny your enemies access to medical facilities, suddenly there isn't a whole lot you won't shoot at."

"How barbaric."

"It's pragmatism… but yes, it is barbaric. Hmm, is that the prince?" Saito nodded towards a figure dressed in white entering the chapel. Receiving a non-committal grunt from Louise, they hastened their pace to the meeting point.

Leaving their wet coats by the door, they entered the almost deserted chapel and found the figure kneeling down in prayer by the altar. Patiently waiting for him to finish, Saito took a look around the place. Most of the furnishings had been stripped away to protect them from the war, practically everything that wasn't nailed down had been removed.

Two alabaster statues stood on both sides of the altar. Larger than most humans, instead of faces they had smooth faceplates. Much like the golems at Midgand, a sense of déjà vu hit Saito and again he couldn't place it. They were dangerous, how he didn't know, only that his gut insisted on it.

Keeping one eye on them at all times and fingering his knuckles just in case they sprang to life, he kept himself between them and Louise as the man in white rose.

"Good morning, have you come seeking peace or are you waiting for someone?"

"I am Countess Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliere and this is my guard, we're Tristainian ambassadors here to meet prince Wales." Louise puffed out her chest and presented the water ruby, drawing a nod from the man.

"Well, that would be me." Wales held out his own wind ruby and a rainbow formed, proving his identity.

"I was of the opinion that Viscount Wardes would be meeting me. Has something changed?"

"No, he's investigating the situation in general. We're here on behalf of her highness Henrietta, your visit left more than a few questions that we were hoping to get answers for."

"Ah, I see. I understand, I didn't have as much time as I'd like back then to clear up everything. Ask away, I'll do my best to answer." Wales nodded understandingly and gestured for them to continue.

"Alright, eh, these new allies of yours, where did they come from?"

"That's actually a good question. I don't know myself, they just appeared one day with the intention of ridding Albion of tyranny. As to how I came to work with them… I was in a bad situation and their leader helped me out of it. Our interests aligned and so we became allies."

'Lie.' Saito allowed nothing to show on his face as he watched for more signs of deception. A small twitch of the eyes gave away the fact that the prince knew more about their origins than he claimed.

The longer the questioning went on, the more frustrated Saito became at the multitude of half truths being fed to them. Time was short as it was and this charade was going nowhere, they needed answers and they needed them now. Giving Louise a small nudge to hurry her along, he received an imperceptible nod in return.

"You say they have the people's interest at heart but you suddenly allied with them against your own people, against your own father. There is the worry that you might be under their sway."

"Well… I suppose it could come off that way since I have been supporting my father until recently. I assure you though that my will is my own. They defer to my decisions, not the other way around. My father… is unfit to lead. He failed to act when Reconquista was still a fledgling movement and now he insists on wasting what resources we have left on meaningless pursuits, just waiting for the end."

Wales laughed mirthlessly and forced out a painful smile. "He's grown old. For Albion's future he must be removed from power. I've thrown my lot in with the peasant uprising for a brighter tomorrow. A new Albion will rise from the ashes of the old, one where all are equal, one where injustice will not stand because of a person's station."

"I see, but there's still the question of who's backing these new allies of yours." Louise was slightly taken aback by the bitterness in his tone but pressed forward with the questioning.

"You fear me being installed as a puppet ruler? Understandable given the situation. Fear not, they have no intent to rule and answer only to one other individual aside from myself. I'm afraid I am not at liberty to explain it all now, once Reconquista has been dealt with, I will give a full account to Henrietta. Rest assured, I will never be Henrietta's enemy."

Any further questioning was cut off when the doors opened and Wardes stepped through, flanked by several heavily armed guards bearing royalist colours.

"Your grace. Louise." Wardes nodded to both of them and ignored Saito as he approached. As the nobles exchanged pleasantries, Saito was paying more attention to the guards.

Completely decked out in battle armour and faces obscured with their helms, enough of their body language showed through to start raising red flags. Several were shuffling about nervously while a few nervously fingered their weapons.

'Tense. They're worried about the imminent Reconquista assault? No. That doesn't fit, they don't have that despair surrounding them like every other royalist soldier… anticipation? Oh hell.' Saito's eyes widened as he buried his hands in his pockets, ready to grab his knuckles or sonic grenades at a moment's notice.

Surreptitiously taking a step to the side to keep them all in view while still being able to see Wardes, he blinked when he thought he saw the viscount's hand phase through Wales' own during a handshake.

'What the hell? That looks like… no… it can't be.' Rubbing his eyes to ensure they weren't playing tricks on them, he squinted and stared hard at the prince. Behind his almost shut eyelids, his pupils glowed green for a brief instant as he amplified his own vision.

'Oh. Fuck.' Before his enhanced vision, the illusion of the prince fell away to reveal the cyborg decoy beneath.

A hologram.

A bloody NOD hologram.

Saito didn't know what the hell was going on, he didn't know if the prince was still alive and willingly working with NOD or if he had been murdered and replaced and frankly he didn't care. The NOD sonofabitch standing in front of him was going to die.

Slowly edging towards Louise, he prepared to grab her and run, a grenade to the Reconquista agents would take care of the enemies in their path and a second grenade for the 'prince' would deal with that abomination.

That plan flew out the window when a courier burst through the front doors in a panic. "My liege! It's a trick! The Reconquista ships outside Newcastle are dummies! The fleet has begun their invasion of Tristain!"

"""WHAT!?""" Three simultaneous shouts of surprise came from Saito, Louise and Wales.

"It's true! The Lexington is already at Tarbes! We need to-" The courier's words were cut off as three feet of steel burst out of his chest when one of the Reconquista assassins took the opportunity to stab him in the back.

"Lord Cromwell has ordered your deaths. For the founder!" Drawing their swords and rushing forwards like zealots, Saito cursed as they closed the distance too quickly for him to throw his grenades for fear of catching Louise in the blast.

"Ambush! Defend yourselves!" Drawing Derflinger and pushing Louise behind him, he started parrying their blows. After creating an opening, Saito switched his grip on his sword and grabbed Derflinger by the blade and used the hilt as a club to bash in the helm of one unfortunate individual.

Kicking the flailing body into his comrades, he backhanded the next closest guard and knocked off his helm. Switching to holding Derflinger by the hilt, Saito reared back and stabbed forward in a single thrust, punching through the plate mail and burying the blade in the man's sternum.

Refusing to go quietly, the guard grabbed hold of his arm and tried to pull him in closer, locking him in place for his comrades to finish off.

Demented giggling came from the doomed assassin and when Saito stared into his eyes, they were glazed over and looking right through him.

"Tch." Fending off the other swords with his free arm and feeling steel cut into his flesh, Saito dragged the sack of flesh still hanging on to his arm and used him as a shield.

Their blows never ceased even with their ally in the way and the man was rapidly pounded to a bloody pulp as his armour caved inwards. "F-for the holy lands!"

Pushing forwards with a bloody grin, the assassin attempted to crush Saito under his weight before he expired.

"Buzz off." Undaunted, Saito dug his heels in and shoved him back with his superior strength and ripped his arm free. As the assassin sprawled on the floor, he was treated to the disconcerting sight of the man trying to stand again even after being mortally wounded. The demented giggling continued until his chest rose no more.

'The hell is wrong with these people? Not even the black hand were this fanatical.' Saito bit back a curse as he rammed his fist into a man's throat, crushing it and sending him to the ground in convulsions.

Behind him, Louise contributed as best she could, blowing up any assassin that tried to bypass Saito's guard. Wardes and the Wales cyborg fended of the rest.

"They keep coming, we need to leave now! I'll open a path." Wales raised his sword and prepared to charge through the enemy lines as the viscount made to cover his advance… only to halt when Wardes reversed his grip on the sword wand and planted it in Wales' heart.

"PRINCE WALES! Viscount what are you doing!?" Louise shouted as the prince's body fell to the ground.

"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal." Saito blithely commented after seeing the treacherous viscount deal with the cyborg for him. Pretending to nurse his injured arm, he quietly keyed a few commands into a hidden remote, calling the Firehawk to his position for a hot extract.

"Fate is on my side it seems. Put down your wand Louise, I don't want to hurt you. Reconquista could use your talents." Wardes casually swiped the blade clean on the prince's robes and rose to his full height. A wave of his hand and the surviving assassins backed off.

"You? You're with Reconquista? How could you!? We trusted you!" Pointing an accusatory finger at her fiancé, Louise desperately wanted this to be a lie.

"Reconquista will win. The old king isn't long for the world and the prince's little rebellion is over. I intend to be on the winning side that's all." Wardes shrugged and gestured to the ruined chapel around them.

"Look around you, it's over. Today, the last resistance to Reconquista in Albion dies and with the fleet already in Tristain, that miserable nation won't last much longer. Soon, all will be united under one banner. If you are wise you will join me."

"Never!" Louise shouted defiantly.

"I will never join a traitor!" Pointing her wand at Wardes, she tried to unleash her most powerful explosion spell when the viscount just sighed and waved his hand again. She found herself unable to move and her magic deserted her as she fell to her knees.

"You seem to think you have a choice. Behold the ring of Andvari, with this I can bend the minds of others to my will, even the loyal guards of the king are not exempt. Tis a shame I have to return this to her, now come with me Louise, Reconquista has need of your abilities." Wardes proudly displayed the ring and ordered Louise to follow.

His smug expression morphed into one of confusion when he noticed Saito wasn't kneeling. "You, guard, I order you to kneel."

The commando let out a small chuckle as the traitor waved his hands about like a fool to no effect. "How convenient. That ring, I'll be taking it from your dead body."

"What? How are you still standing?"

Saito refused to deign him with an answer and began counting down the seconds as the assassins began to move towards him again. 'Come on you NOD scum, do it. Avenge your fallen brethren.'

"Fine. If you won't answer then die- what the!?" As Wardes gave the order to attack, the two statues burst into action. White plaster fell away to reveal grey armour beneath.

"Liquid death online."

Saito struck the instant the tiberium troopers revealed themselves. His eyes flashed green again as he put on a burst of speed beyond anything Louise had ever seen. As the cyborgs raised their weapons against Wardes, the general was already bringing Derflinger down on his arm.

Cleanly disarming the traitor, Saito plucked the ring off the severed hand mid-flight and was by Louise's side again in a flash. Grabbing the stunned girl and tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes once more, he dashed past the directionless assassins and out the door.

"Argh! Damn AHHHHHARHGGHH!" Cursing in shock from the loss of his arm, it turned into full blown screaming rapidly as the tiberium troopers unleashed a flood of fire into his face.

Casting a desperate wind spell to turn the fire back and keep it from ravaging the rest of his body, Wardes stumbled in the direction of the door as the troopers continued hosing everything down with fire.

Half blind and in terrible agony, he collapsed inches away from the door of the burning chapel and fell unconscious. The last thing that filled his vision was the armoured demons marching through the flames with their red faceplates glowing in the firelight.

-line break

"What the heck was that?" Louise shouted as Saito continued sprinting even after leaving the inferno behind.

"That, is a problem. We're getting off this god forsaken island."

"What do we do now? Reconquista is attacking our home, Wardes is a traitor and the prince is dead." Louise spoke after a moment of silence, too distraught over the events that transpired to even complain about being carried.

"That wasn't the prince, just a decoy. Now, we return and destroy those invaders. Then, I return here to crush the peasant uprising."

"How do you know… wait what do you mean crush the peasants!?"

"Those mysterious new supporters? They're the freaking brotherhood of NOD. I don't know how they followed me here and I don't care. The only thing that matters is grinding them to dust." Saito spat out the words as hate suffused his being.

"But the peasants?"

"NOD corrupts everything they touch. They damned near destroyed my world on too many occasions, millions are dead because of them and billions more would have perished if they had their way. For the sake of peace, everything they've influenced must be scourged!"

A small beeping sound from the remote in his jacket indicated the Firehawk was just seconds away. Moments later there was screaming from the people around them as the roar of the engines reached them and the Firehawk dropped out of the clouds.

Holding position a few feet above the ground, the cockpit opened up and Saito clambered onto the jet. Depositing Louise in the co-pilot seat, he strapped himself in and jammed the helmet onto his head, as soon as the neural link was established, the jet fired its afterburners and shot off into the distance headed for Tristain.

"Stratofighter boosters warming up. Hang tight, we're going up." Allowing the onboard AI to handle the calculations, he flipped several switches and prepared to make the jump.

Warning klaxons sounded as several contacts appeared on the radar and Saito cursed. "Stealth tanks! Shit! They've got a bead on us."

Several green streaks lanced towards them from the ground and he abandoned the jump procedures to focus on evasive manoeuvres.

Saito forced the Firehawk into a series of tight corkscrew spins trying to lose the missile lock. Several green streaks soared past them as he successfully evaded them.

"There's too many of them! Ah damnit damnit damnit!"

The stealth tanks fired off a second volley and Saito did his best to evade again. "Come on, come on. I can see the edge of Albion."

This time, he was less successful as two found their mark. The Firehawk shuddered violently and sparks flew inside the cockpit. "We're hit!"

Saito looked out the canopy and cursed when he saw one of the engines on fire and spewing black smoke. Fire suppression systems were offline and the damage was spreading to other areas. Connected as he was to the Firehawk AI, he could feel each affected system shut down one after another.

"We're heating up… I'm losing control! Ehhh! A managed crash is the best I can do!"

"THEN MANAGE IT!" Louise's loud voice penetrated into his skull and the suppressed panic inside it gave him pause. If she could keep from panicking and at least maintain some semblance of calm, how could he do any less?

Swallowing hard and taking a deep breath, he ran through the systems still operational and did a quick check on their estimated distance to Tarbes. At the rate they were failing it'd be a close thing.

"Damn, damn, damn… okay… Partner, the ejectors are damaged and the air brakes are gone, I can't slow us down. If we hit at this speed we're dead no questions about it."

"S-so what do we do." There was a slight tremble in her voice but otherwise it held firm as she put her faith in her familiar.

"Once we're closer, I'll need you to blast the canopy off. Then we jump."

"What!? Saito… I still can't fly or even cast a wind spell to slow us down."

"Never mind that, I'll handle the landing, you just make sure to blast it off when I give the signal." Saito fought the controls as the craft threatened to spiral out of control as he lost the engines.

The next few minutes passed in tense silence as Saito did his best to keep the Firehawk level as shudders constantly rocked the jet, each one threatening to be the big one that shook the fighter apart.

"I think I see Tarbes, get ready to blow it." Saito tersely commanded as the ground came into view. Several columns of smoke were visible in the distance and he was damned sure that was from civilisation and not more smoke filling the cockpit.

His controls were shot to hell and practically gone at this point, the Firehawk remaining intact and heading towards their destination was as much a testament to his skills as it was the heavens favouring them with the luck of the devil.

"Okay… here we go. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… NOW!"

On cue, Louise released her spell and several mini explosions blossomed along the canopy, shearing it off and exposing them to the cold air.

Ripping off the helmet and releasing the seatbelts, Saito dragged himself off the chair and caught Louise's hand as the Firehawk started an out of control descent.

Pulling her into his arms, Saito pushed away from the doomed jet and braced his partner against himself as he aimed for the trees.

'This is gonna hurt.' He was dimly aware of Louise screaming but her words were lost to the wind as the ground rapidly approached. Curling into as much of a ball as he could to protect Louise, his back struck the tree tops first.

Smashing straight through the conifer like a canon ball, he split the tree in half on the way down and tasted blood in his mouth as the makeshift brake was comparable to eating a full clip from an assault rifle to the back.

Bouncing off the tree near to the ground, he landed feet first and two sickening cracks greeted him when his legs snapped instantly. Hugging Louise close during the tumble, he only released the girl once they weren't in danger of smashing into anything else.

Louise crawled away, dazed and bruised but otherwise alright. As she stood, the burning wreckage of the Firehawk sailed overhead and arrived at is final destination, a rocky outcrop, and burst into a ball of flames.

"I… I'm alive? SAITO!" The shock of surviving was replaced by worry for her familiar still lying on the ground. Dashing over to him, she tried to help him up but upon seeing lying in a pool of blood with his eyes closed and limbs bent at odd angles, she fell to her knees.

"No. No nononono you can't be dead. Saito… wake up. Please. WAKE UP!"

A small groan filled her with elation as Saito's eyes slowly opened. "Would you quiet down? Some people are trying to sleep here."

"Saito!" Forgetting his condition for a brief moment at her elation of seeing him alive, she hugged him tight and was rewarded by a grunt of pain. Yelping, she let him go and apologised repeated as the gandalfr started pulling himself back together.

"Ow. Ah, damn I'm going to feel that in the morning." Pushing himself into a sitting position, he stared dumbly at his mangled legs and broken arm.

"I'll… I'll go get help. Tarbes is nearby right? Maybe Guiche and Siesta can help us." Stopping Louise before she could dash off, Saito shook his head firmly.

"Relax. It'll take a lot more than this to kill me. Just… just give me a moment, I'll be better in a sec, then we can go deal with Reconquista."

"What are you talking about!? You're in no condition to be going anywhere!"

"I've been through worse. You… might want to close your eyes for a bit. This is going to be ugly."

Once Louise complied even though she had no idea what Saito was up to, the commando dug deep and reached for the detestable power within and snapped his broken arm back into place. Holding it steady for a few seconds, it was good as new.

Next he worked on the legs, they were shattered in so many different places it wasn't even funny. Doing his best to set them straight, the crunch of bone was audible as the bone fragments shuffled around and fused back together.

Using a nearby boulder as a crutch, he pulled himself up and began placing weight on them to see if they healed right. When nothing gave and he remained standing even after pulling away from the boulder, he grunted in satisfaction and jumped a few times just to make sure.

Ripping free a few splinters that had become lodged in him, there was the itching sensation as the flesh knitted over the wound, erasing it completely.

After a few moments more he was near full capacity and allowed the power to fade away, back to whatever dark pit it usually resided in. The soreness would be there for days but he cared not for it, only how unclean he felt after tapping into that unholy gift.

"Alright, you can open your eyes now, I'm good."

"Wha- how!?" She stumbled for words when she opened her eyes to find a bloodstained Saito standing at attention without a scratch on him.

"I'm with pinkie, that was some freaky business user and I've seen quite a lot in my time." Derflinger piped up when Louise was at a loss for words.

"It's a curse placed on me long ago by a madman. Ah ah ah, don't touch me partner. My flesh is for lack of a better word toxic right now. In fact, it's best if you stay a few feet away from me, I don't want to hurt you by accident."

"A-are you sure you're alright?" She asked dubiously as she couldn't figure out how Saito was fully operational again after sustaining critical injuries. Not even the greatest water mages could heal such devastating wounds that quickly.

"Yes, yes I'm sure. You can ask your questions later, for now, we need to get to Tarbes. Unless I'm mistaken it should be just beyond this forest." Saito forestalled and further questions over the uncomfortable subject and elected to focus on the pressing matter at hand, getting to Tarbes and seeing the true extent of the Reconquista incursion.

"O-okay. Don't push yourself alright?"

"Relax, I know my own limits."

Their hike through the forest was in silence as each stewed in their own thoughts. Finally, they could make out familiar scenery through gaps in the trees.

But when they arrived, it was anything but a welcoming sight.

The idyllic countryside and peaceful village was awash in orange as fire consumed everything. Through the thick blanket of smoke, silhouettes of Reconquista's airships were visible and flashes occasionally lit up the darkness as their guns fired volley after volley.

"No rest for the weary indeed."

* * *

Author's notes: Personal commitments and writer's block make for a terrible combination. University is starting soon and I may have to stop writing this fic, good news is that I've already planned out the end so if that happens I'll post a summary of events.

No Sheffield is not scrin, I don't think the scrin even have genders. The answer lies with the dragon's raiment.

On the topic of culture, I mean no offence to anyone and if seeing the Chinese man ask for help from a Japanese is contrary to what culture dictates then I apologise. I'm Chinese myself but my family is less traditional than others in some aspects, I was raised to put the wellbeing of my family above my own pride. Begging for help may be demeaning but if it works and my family is saved, I'd do it in a heartbeat. My grasp of Chinese culture isn't the strongest and I can only base my work around what I personally know and have experienced. Once again, I mean no offence and I apologise if I did offend anyone with the way I write.

And maybe some context would have helped. For those unfamiliar with the CNC tiberium universe, tiberium is an alien mineral that consumes and corrupts practically everything it touches. It landed in 1995 and this story takes place around the year 2050. In those 50 odd years, half the world is either uninhabitable or about to be.

Nations as we know them have effectively ceased to exist and the world has been re-divided into blue zones, (the almost tiberium free), yellow zones (the partially consumed) and the red zones (completely uninhabitable except for mutants and tiberium based lifeform).

The way I view it, culture and societal norms would change drastically after the world has been altered to such a degree and survival becomes paramount especially in places where facilities aren't up to par with dealing with the scourge.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer, I own nothing, don't sue me.

Chapter 12: Burning Air

Saito and Louise skirted the edge of the forest as they made their way towards the burning village. Ducking behind a tree as a pair of dragon riders flew past and scorched the earth with their dragons' fiery breath.

"This is bad, there already here in force." Saito grimly commented as the dragon knights flew off, neglecting to circle back to finish the job.

"So what do we do?"

Saito scanned the area and spotted movement near the cave where the dragon's raiment was stashed. "Over there, I see movement. I think the villages might be taking refuge in the caves. We'll join them for now. No explosions, we don't want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves"

"Alright."

Dashing from cover to cover when the coast was clear, they managed to make it to the cave without much trouble. A single dragon rider had arrived to impede them but a miss with a thrown dagger managed to distract him long enough for Saito and Louise to slip by.

Right before entering the cave, Saito detected motion and drew Derflinger immediately. Swinging the sword in a wide arc, he cut down two arrows before they could perforate him.

Moments later, the archers leapt out to face him in combat since their ambush had lost the element of surprise. familiar bronze golems rushed him and Saito's eye began to twitch as he batted their weapons away.

"Damnit Guiche! Call your golems off, it's us!"

"Yeah? How do I know you're not a spy posing as my friends? Tell me the secret password." Guiche's disbelieving voice came from the back of the cave as more golems appeared.

"What password!? If you don't call them off right now you better believe you'll be doing 500 laps of the school grounds once this is over!"

A moment of silence passed before the reply came. "Eh. Good enough for me."

As the golems backed off and returned to their hiding spots, Saito and Louise entered the cave. There they found almost the entirety of the village huddled in fear. Guiche was resting with his back against the rig, a tired smile on his face.

Siesta and the village elders were doing their best to reassure the young ones that everything was going to be fine, they weren't completely successful as morale was rock bottom. The presence of wounded soldiers from the local garrison did nothing to inspire hope.

"What are you doing here? I thought the both of you had to attend to an urgent royal summon? And what the heck happened to you? You look like a walking corpse." Guiche asked once they had found seats of their own.

"It's complicated. Suffice to say we were investigating Albion when we heard about the invasion. On the return trip, our landing left a lot to be desired." Saito gave the cliff notes version of events and gave the makeshift refugee camp a once over.

"Your turn, what happened here?"

Guiche shook his head with an expression of distaste before replying. "We got lucky… well as lucky as anyone can get in an invasion. Some of the children were playing out in the woods when they spotted the invasion fleet. Managed to get out a warning to us and Siesta and I started the evacuation. Was a close thing too, many didn't believe them, but with my nobility we managed to get them to evacuate to this place."

Guiche nodded in the direction of the wounded soldiers nursing their injuries. "They used to be under the command of the local lord. Helped out with the evacuation efforts until a few dragon riders found us, they stayed behind to stall them while the stragglers reached safety. Some of them didn't make it."

"Used to?"

"The lord… haaa… attempted to greet the invaders under a white flag to negotiate a peaceful surrender. Albion's answer was a full broadside from the Royal Sovereign. He didn't make it either." Guiche cursed at such a blatant breach of the rules of engagement and the waste of life.

"That's the royal navy's flagship out there, what the hell happened, why are we at war with Albion?"

"We're not. That's Reconquista out there. Although the old Albion government is practically gone now." Saito shook his head and replied.

"What!? No way, how could the rebels have captured the entire Albion fleet and what do you mean gone!?"

"How couldn't they? I was at Newcastle, the royalist faction was down to just barely three hundred men while Reconquista numbers in the tens of thousands. Then there is the part where Reconquista is using mind control." Saito finished the last part in a whisper to not cause any more undue panic, and Guiche's face paled considerably.

"Oh… that is dark stuff." Guiche pulled his knees in close and began nervously playing with the petals on his wand.

"No kidding. What else have we missed?"

"Not much. The fleet is still holding position beyond the village. Their ground forces are being marshalled at the edges, once they have enough they'll probably move to take Tarbes itself. Other than that, it's just the dragon knights flying about. That's all we can see from here." Guiche gave a report to Saito's rapidly darkening look.

"Not good. We can't let them gain a foothold in Tristain, if they take Tarbes we won't be able to uproot them without flattening the whole village." Saito stood and gestured for Louise to stay put and rest.

"I'll see if I can contact the royal palace, if the army can get here soon we'll have a fighting chance."

"Do we? Those guns on the Royal Sovereign, they're on a completely different level. The army won't stand a chance against that kind of firepower. Albion's air superiority is unmatched with that monster of a ship and the dragon knights." Guiche stated in a depressed tone.

Saito frowned and tilted his head to regard the fighter behind the blond noble. "Leave the dreadnought to me. I'll think of something."

Patting Guiche on the shoulder and heading into the battlebase deployed nearby, Saito did a quick inventory of all available assets as he activated the radio.

Some wounded soldiers, Guiche, a possibly shell-shocked Louise, a fighter with unknown status and the battle base with anti-armour and anti-air defences. Not a whole lot to be honest but he'd have to make do with it.

"Familiar! What's going on, we're getting reports of an invasion from Albion." Agnes voice finally came through the coms after several minutes of tense waiting.

"The siege at Newcastle was a feint, they're here in force. Urgent reinforcements needed at Tarbes, they're trying to establish a staging ground."

"Damn! Can you link up with the local garrison? The princess is busy with alliance talks with the Germanian envoy, the royal army won't be able to march in time."

"The garrison is gone aside from a few wounded soldiers. Reconquista wiped them out."

"Blast it! Alright, the musketeers will deploy first, we should make it there soon with the new armour. Do what you can to stall them."

"Understood." Saito sighed once the communique cut off. Things would be a whole lot harder without the aid of the royal army. Removing the headset and setting it down gently, he stared at his reflection in the blank screen.

His jacket was torn to shreds and soaked in blood, his skin was covered in dried blood, wood chips and mud. A walking corpse was a pretty apt description after all.

Sighing at the sorry sight, he shed his destroyed clothes and rinsed of the blood and grime before switching to a set he'd stashed in the rig ages ago and forgot about. Retrieving a small stack of papers, he double checked to make sure they were in order and hid them in his vest.

Stepping out of the battlebase, he found Louise asleep on the ground with a blanket laid over her courtesy of Guiche. Taking care not to wake her, he addressed the earth mage is a low voice. "Bad news, the army won't make it here in time to make a difference. An advance party is on the way but we'll have to stall Reconquista long enough for them to get here."

"Easier said than done. What do you need me to do?" Guiche replied with determination in his voice.

"I'm going to scout out Reconquista's forces, if you're up to it, have a few of your golems hide in Tarbes and fire at any hostile that tries to enter. We want them to think Tarbes is still being defended by a sizeable force."

"The dragon knights are too fast for my arrows, but I'll do what I can."

"You won't be using arrows. The battlebase has a small armoury inside, load up with the rifles they'll even the odds."

"Are you sure? Guns aren't the most effective or accurate things to use against mages."

"Trust me, these rifles are beyond anything you've ever heard off. Besides, inaccurate or not, most people will think twice about charging recklessly when being shot at by unseen enemies. As long as your Valkyries aren't caught and destroyed, they'll be all the support you need." Saito reassured the doubtful mage.

"Yes sir. As a member of the proud Gramont family I won't let you down." Guiche saluted and began ordering his golems to return for their new equipment. As he did so, Saito approached Siesta.

"Would you mind looking after the little miss? She's been through quite a bit and I'm needed out there."

"O-oh of course I'll look after her. Just… be careful."

Nodding, Saito placed a cap over his head and began his journey towards the Reconquista lines.

-line break

"Sir, you have a visitor."

The admiral raised his head from the Map of the surrounding countryside he was studying to regard the newcomer. "And just who are you supposed to be and why are you wasting my time?"

"I am Gaius Bartholomew III, I'm here on behalf of Reconquista's Tristain branch."

"Oh? So you're one of Richemont's, a little far from home aren't you?"

"Hmmph! Not by choice, Reconquista's operations in the capital are on hold for now, I don't know how the royal army found out about us but they did. We've gone to ground until the heat dies down, I was redeployed to this backwater village instead of being sent back to Albion. Then you lot showed up without warning."

The admiral flipped through the stack of papers his guard handed to him and nodded when they corroborated the story. "Yeah the invasion plan was pretty hush hush to keep spies from finding out, not that it would have mattered either way. Things seem to be in order, leave us, we have matters to discuss in private."

The guard saluted and left the command tent, leaving only the admiral and his guest.

"Well, I don't suppose I could offer you a drink?" The admiral's tone was slightly friendlier now that he was dealing with a fellow compatriot from Albion.

"No thank you, I need to report in after this and I like my head attached to the rest of my body."

"Heh, so the good minister is still the same old hypocrite, loves the drink but won't allow any of his underlings to partake."

"I wouldn't know, I've never met him in person. What I do know is that my bosses have a very low tolerance for failure and unbecoming conduct."

"Fair enough. So what brings you here? You clearly aren't here to help if your own operations are in a mess." The admiral leant backed in the chair and folded his arms, a smug smile on his face.

"I'm here to check on the status of the invasion. Most of the Tristain members weren't even aware of it taking place today and we aren't ready to take the cities yet. We need to know a rough timeline of when you're going to march on the capital so we know what assistance we can provide."

"Assistance? Don't make me laugh Gaius. What you see today is just a fraction of Reconquista's true might. Just the Lexington alone will be enough to crush the capital."

"…I find that quite hard to believe. The Lexington used to be the Royal Sovereign yes? It is a powerful battleship but to say that it can take the capital by itself…"

The admiral chuckled at the disbelieving tone. "That was the old Lexington, I'll let you in on a secret since we both hail from Albion. Reconquista's flagship is no longer a battleship."

"What?"

"Mmhmm, it's the first of its kind, our soon to be emperor Cromwell has decided to call it a carrier. A rather unimaginative name if an apt one. The Lexington can carry enough man and materiel to fight a small war on its own. It has enough room to carry up to two hundred dragon knights or almost a thousand infantrymen and still boasts the most powerful guns in Halkeginia. Sure, the cannon at Midgand might have superior range but nothing can beat the Lexington's raw firepower. The capability to field an army and still sink any ship in a single shot, Reconquista is invincible!"

"That's… very heartening to hear."

"Well to answer your main question, we're just waiting on the ships to finish off loading the soldiers before advancing. Once the Lexington is done switching over to a full dragon knight complement we will advance. The infantrymen will take the village and it will be our staging ground for reinforcements while the rest of the fleet pushes on the capital." The admiral paused to pour himself a glass of brandy and shrugged when his guest once more refused the proffered drink.

"We've done the simulations, the capital will fall easily and the dragon knights will suppress any insurrection. The infantry will then take the rest of the country and crush any noble that dares to resist. We won't need your assistance for the push on the capital so have your comrades pull out, no sense dying to friendly fire. You'll be needed to weed out the nobles of questionable loyalty later."

"Understood, I'll be sure to convey your words to my superiors. Long live the queen."

"Queen? What are yo-" The admiral's words were abruptly cut off as Saito stabbed Derflinger through his throat and nailed him to the backrest, severing his spine and killing him instantly.

Once the spasming stopped, Saito wrenched the blade free and lowered to body, allowing it to rest on the table and making no sound as he did so.

Wiping his sword clean on the dead man's robes, Saito sheathed the blade and grabbed as many important looking documents as he could, stuffing them into his robes.

Withdrawing a few grenades, he stuffed them under the corpse and primed them to go off once the body was disturbed. Satisfied with his work, Saito calmly exited the tent and addressed the guard "The admiral is enjoying a bottle of brandy right now, he doesn't wish to be disturbed."

"Yes sir." The guard saluted and returned to his post, blissfully unaware of what had transpired.

'Now to poison everything I can.'

-line break

Having sown as much chaos as he could without breaking his cover, Saito quietly slipped away from the Reconquista camp, leaving shouts of panic and desperation behind him as several fires raged out of control among the highly flammable tents.

His stores of poison were completely empty now after he dumped hallucinogens into the water supply and laced the cooking pots with cyanide. He was also completely out of grenades after scattering them around the place as booby traps and diversions.

Fate dealt him a mixed hand, on the one hand most of the mages and notable officers were still onboard the ships or on dragonback and thus out of reach. But that also meant that there were a lack of mages around to stop the inferno once his diversionary fires spread out of control.

Additionally, panicked reports from Tarbes indicating an unknown force equipped with guns was picking off any scout that tried to enter the village. Claims ranged anywhere from a single sniper to an entire army unit and the Reconquista advanced stalled.

Casting a dark look at the enemy flagship as he stood beneath the Lexington's shadow, Saito frowned before continuing on his way. Whatever blows they managed to deal wouldn't mean a thing if the Lexington remained afloat.

The carrier needed to sink one way or another or the army would be annihilated once they arrived. The dragon's raiment was the last card he had to play, he needed the jet's mobility and prayed that its guns still had ammo.

The rig was too immobile, the tanks would never make it in time and he didn't have enough Firehawks to sink the fleet with their limited loadout. Not for the first time, Saito cursed the engineers who decided that GDI's air force needed more sensors in place of anti-air machineguns, even vertigos had them for crying out loud.

Shaking his head to ward off the what ifs, he made several detours to ensure no one was following him before returning to the cave. Stepping through, he found Louise awake and a tired looking Guiche next to her.

"You're awake, that's good. Guiche, enough. Get some rest, the fleet is about to move soon and your golems won't be able to do much against cannon fire."

Guiche nodded gratefully and began pulling his troops back to the cave while allowing several to crumble to reduce the drain on his willpower.

"Are you going to fight?" Louise asked as she stood up.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I'm going to fight partner, if Reconquista isn't stopped here they'll overrun the countryside."

"And your condition?"

"I'll live."

Louise sighed in exasperation before nodding to herself. "You're a crazy fool of a familiar you know that? I'm coming with you."

"…Excuse me?" Saito blinked as he thought he misheard her.

"I'm coming with you. You're not leaving me behind this time. Somebody has to keep you from getting yourself killed."

"You just survived a crash landing, on top of everything that went down in Albion. You are in no condition to go into battle." Saito stated firmly and folded his arms, drawing a small huff from Louise.

"Do you really have the right to tell me that?"

"I know my… you're not going to change your mind on this are you." Saito sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose when Louise smiled and said nothing.

"Alright, fine, ah heaven help me I can't believe I'm agreeing to something this irresponsible." Saito buried his face in his palm as he climbed into the fighter.

'Let's see what we've got.' Wrapping his hands around the grips, runes began to glow and the screens flickered to life. The jet rumbled briefly as the engines kicked in and information about it poured into Saito's head.

'No way. This… this is insane.' Bands of light formed around him and coalesced into a pilot suit as the nanomachines did their work. There was a small tingle as his senses were connected to the jet and he could see through the jets sensors, it was a bond superior to even that of the Firehawk neural link. The closest thing he could compare it to was the virtual sensory pod serving as an avatars cockpit.

Holographic bands extended from the hand grips and surrounded his hands, forming the rest of the controls signalling that the dragon's raiment was ready to soar once more.

'Kinetic burst auto-cannons… i-infinite ammo. Hydrogen fuel cells at 54%, estimated operational time left… 3 weeks. VX transformation systems all green.' Saito swallowed hard as he ran through the systems, he wasn't so sure this was from his world after all, it was just too advanced for its time.

"This… this came from Japan? No, never mind, with this I can beat Reconquista." Pushing aside his questions, he rose and helped the waiting Louise into the co-pilot seat

"Wha-what are you doing to the dragon's raiment!?" One of the villages questioned as Saito instructed Guiche to raise stone walls around the jet, blocking everyone else from it.

"I'm allowing it to spread its wings once more. Guiche, keep them safe, the musketeers should be arriving soon. You know what to do."

"Already on it. Verdandi will be done soon." Saito nodded and returned to his seat sealing the cockpit. Guiche had things in hand and he'd leave the civilians to him.

Once the jet finished its shakedown and all systems read green, he turned to address Louise. "This is your last chance to get off. Once we get out there, there's no guarantee that we won't be shot down again. This time we might not make it."

"Hmmph! Not a chance partner. I am a Valliere and I will uphold the rule of steel. I won't have my familiar rushing off into danger while I hide away. I'm not a useless zero anymore." Louise stated firmly.

"…Figured you'd say that. As expected of my partner." Saito suppressed a chuckle and slowly eased the jet forward into take-off position. Engaging the underside boosters, the VTOL rose a few feet into the air drawing startled gasps from the bystanders.

"Very well then. Brigadier general Hiraga Saito, Count Louise de la Valliere, Jet Tengu, ikuzo!" Gunning the thrusters, the fighter shot out of the cave in a blast of wind and sound and returned to the skies it forsook so long ago.

The silver jet bypassed the first line of dragon knights as they just stared blindly at the blur that passed them, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. When one of them remained in his way, Saito treated the dragon knight to a healthy dose of tiny metal particles accelerated to relativistic speeds.

The mage and his mount vanished in a red mist as the fighter homed in on the next target, a frigate standing between it and the Lexington.

Lining up his shot, Saito depressed the trigger and raked the frigates sailed with a line of blue bolts, shredding them and sending men ducking for cover.

"Ah, damn I don't have a shot at the bridge."

"Allow me." Louise pointed her wand at the crippled frigate and released an explosion spell, engulfing the entire upper deck in a massive blast that knocked the ship out of the sky.

"Nice shot." The familiar complimented as he watched the ship's wreckage begin its final voyage to a fiery end.

"We're kicking these invaders out of our home!" Louise clutched her wand tight as a fire burned in her eyes. Reconquista had spat in the face of everything she held dear and now they had dared to set foot on sacred ground. They'd burn. They'd all burn. For such heresy, no punishment was too great.

Circling around for another pass, the fighter ripped through the dragon knight screen protecting the rest of the fleet before homing in on the Lexington's destroyer escorts. Targeting the rearmost ship, the autocannons shredded the sails and slowed it to a crawl, leaving Louise free to blast it out of the sky.

"Dragon knights incoming… Saito?"

"Time for a dog fight, they have nothing on us!" Banking hard to face the incoming hostiles, Saito waded into the fray autocannons firing nonstop.

With the super senses granted to him by the jet, Saito could 'see' the panic on the dragon knights faces and he relished in it. Their spells fell short when the Jet Tengu evaded with superior speed and mobility or simply ploughed straight through without flinching.

One by one their mangled remains fell out of the sky as the autocannons continued sending a never-ending stream of superheated slugs their way.

After sinking a further two destroyers, the Reconquista fleet gave up trying to track the jet and elected to simply fill the sky with as much ordinance as possible. Hundreds of guns boomed simultaneously, sending thousands of exploding cannonballs in his general direction, uncaring of the dragon knights that went down in a hail of friendly fire.

"So they're finally fighting back… well they won't catch us." Saito grinned as he pushed the fighter into a mad dance amidst the storm of firepower, tracking each individual cannon with the aid of the sensors and his gandalfr upgrade.

Deliberately flying circles around the dragon knights, he shot down any that came into his sights but was content to allow Reconquista to thin their ranks for him.

The enemy was panicking, that was good. Panicked enemies were just blow dead and stupid ones in his book and just barely better than the lazy. Panic meant poor judgement, and poor judgement could be capitalised on.

Granting the harassed knights a reprieve, he flew right between two battleships and just as he hoped, their gunners continued firing at him without regard for where they're shells were going.

After eating a full broadside from each other, the battleships transitioned into blazing hulks as the explosives blasted holes wherever they landed and ignited the ships' powder stores.

"Too easy- whoa!" Pulling up at the last second, Saito narrowly avoided ramming into a ship that just materialised out of thin air. As the stealth destroyer directed its guns toward Saito and a barrage of spells came from the mages stationed aboard, Saito pushed the jet to climb ever higher into the sky, leaving the offensive to peter out harmlessly.

"Stealth tech, of course they have stealth tech. Why does everybody have stealth tech except us?"

"Uh, an invisibility spell can be casted by any triangle class wind mage. Being able to hide a whole ship is new though." Louise spoke up when Saito started complaining.

"Oh now you tell me. Well it changes nothing, now that I know what to look out for they won't fool me again." Halting his ascension, the Jet Tengu dived back towards the fleet with the sun at its back.

Firing into a crowd of dragon riders and reducing them to a red mist, Louise contributed to the carnage as well by sinking two more battleships with explosions.

"Good work, how many explosions do you have left in you?"

"Enough."

"Don't push it too far, we still need to sink that Lexington." Saito stated as he engaged the VX systems moments before the fighter would have crashed. Wings folded in as arms and legs deployed, transitioning the jet to walker mode.

Skating across the ground, the Mecha Tengu weaved in and out of the buildings and tore whatever enemy infantry had dared to wander into the abandoned village.

"Saito, what… what is this?" Louise asked once the g forces returned to normal and she could breathe again.

"This is Reconquista's nightmare made flesh." Saito grinned as he punched outwards and the mech followed suit, crushing a foolhardy dragon knight with its fists of steel. As the broken bodies tumbled to the ground, the Mecha Tengu aimed its nose upwards.

The autocannons fired a sustained burst into empty air and a smoking destroyer materialised after the burst penetrated the engine room and shattered the wind stone within, robbing its systems of power and sinking the ship.

Saito winced when a volley from the Lexington landed and devasted a good portion of the village and the shockwave could be felt even inside the hovering mech. Pushing the Mecha Tengu into full reverse while firing at the carrier, Saito made a break for the infantry camp.

He cursed when a shimmering barrier around the Lexington ate his bullets and left the ship unscratched. "That's gonna be a problem."

Evading enemy cannon fire, Saito grinned once the guns stopped booming for fear of wiping out the entirety of their ground forces. The camp was in complete disarray from his earlier visit and order had collapsed completely.

Albion troops clashed among themselves amidst the raging flames as his sabotage ran its course. Soldiers and officers alike ran about in panic shouting incomprehensible orders and stabbing at everything that moved.

The fires were still raging as hallucinating soldiers hampered efforts to put them down. Officers continued shouting a multitude of incomprehensible orders as the chain of command had been severed and more than a few ranking commanders were among the afflicted.

Even the unafflicted were dragged into the madness as everyone had become convinced they had been infiltrated by traitors and paranoia sealed their fate.

Saito took the bonus in stride and fired wildly into the mass of bodies, dealing death all around and worsening the situation for Reconquista.

"Saito… what have you done." Louise whispered in a horrified tone as the chaos reigned supreme.

"I did what needed to be done. Took out their commanders, poisoned their food and drink and planted explosives to sabotage the war effort. Have to say, was not expecting such results, but fortune favours the prepared." Saito shrugged and replied nonchalantly before returning fire on a line of riflemen still in possession of enough sanity to shoot straight.

Several pings resounded as the Mecha Tengu's armour deflected incoming small arms fire and the mech rolled over tents and anyone unfortunate enough to get in its way. "They made their choice, now they can die for their glorious revolution."

-line break

"This… this cannot be happening. This is impossible!" The supreme commander of the invasion force muttered over and over as his pale skin lost what little colour it had. Their supposed cakewalk had turned into a complete and utter disaster. Half the dragon knights gone, the fleet decimated and all contact with the army lost.

To one unit.

"This is all YOUR FAULT! Your incompetence caused this mess!" Taking out his frustration on the captain of the Lexington, the commander started screaming as he lost his composure.

"Commander! Compose yourself. The soldiers will lose their morale if they see the commander in chief acting like this." Bowood managed to get out through gritted teeth as his opinion of the man dropped even lower.

"You dare command me!? How dare you!? I will report this to his excellency! I-I will…" Bowood's remaining patience ran dry and the captain jabbed a wand into his superior's stomach, dropping the man instantly as his sleeping spell took hold.

"I should have done that earlier. The enemy is just one dragoon. I don't care how strong he is, there are some things even a 'hero' like him can't change… and this ship is one of them." Bowood muttered as he motioned for several guards to remove the comatose commander from his presence.

"How long till the damned dragon knights can launch?"

"They need at least another hour captain. The launch port is jammed, and engineers can't identify the problem. They're trying to shift out through the main deck but the cramped space is making the dragons jumpy" A bridge officer replied.

"Damn it to hell. I told them the Lexington's modifications weren't combat ready yet." Bowood slammed his fists against the desk at the bad news.

"Forget the problem, have the knights just blow the damn thing open."

"Sir?"

"We can fix the damage later, we need those knights in the air if we want to take the enemy down. Haaa… load starboard guns 12 through 38 with explosive rounds and target the cave that dragoon came from, there should be civilians in there. With any luck that metal dragoon will stop once they are in danger."

"Yes sir!"

-line break

Transitioning from fighter to mech on top of a battleship, Saito unleashed an unending torrent of gunfire into the wooden hull, tearing large holes in the armour and reducing the insides to ruin. Finishing of by blasting the bridge to hell, the mech left the sinking ship and returned to fighter mode.

"Their destroyer screen is almost gone. Soon we'll be able to hit the Lexington."

"Why can't we hit them now? I think I'm going to be sick soon." Louise muttered as her face took on a decidedly greenish hue from all the transforming.

"Because mobility is the only advantage we have on them. Armour isn't this fighter's strong suit. Reconquista grapeshot will still down us make no mistake about that. Then there's that shield, I don't know what will happen if we hit it, and I'm not inclined to find out."

Any reply from Louise was drowned out by a magically amplified voice booming from the carrier. "Attention Tristainian dragoon."

"Is he talking to us?" Saito shrugged and continued his rampage through the skies.

"You have been a thorn in our side for long enough. Surrender now or we will fire on the villagers hiding in that cave. Resist and they die."

Saito's face blackened as he eased off the assault, allowing a damaged frigate to live a few moments more. Using the onboard speakers to broadcast his own response, Saito waited for an opening as he did so.

"So this is how the holy empire fights? By taking hostages? You must be so proud of yourselves."

"I do not care for your sarcasm dragoon. I have my orders as you have yours, we will reclaim the holy lands and god himself smiles upon our cause. Now dismount from your metal dragon." An explosion ripped through the top deck of the Lexington and a wave of colour poured out as almost two hundred dragon knights soared into the sky.

"Following the orders of evil men doesn't make you righteous. Just following orders isn't a valid excuse in the eyes of your god or anyone else's." Saito retorted as he checked the feed from the rig, satisfied with the report, he announced his choice by sinking the frigate he spared earlier.

"Here's my offer you Reconquista piece of shit, you kill yourself now and I won't skin you alive when I get you." The Jet shot off into the sky again and rained fire down on the thicket of dragon knights.

"SAITO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? THE PEOPLE OF TARBES ARE STILL IN THE CAVE!" Louise shrieked as her familiar just signed all their death warrants without flinching.

"Relax, Guiche already handled it." Saito absentmindedly replied as he concentrated on avoiding the incoming tidal wave of spells, weaving through them as best he could and encouraging friendly fire.

"What!?"

"Before we launched his familiar was already busy digging an evacuation tunnel. I checked the rig, life signs in the cave are zero. We're good to fight as much as we want."

"Oh."

"That said, there's a lot of them. Can you thin their ranks?"

Nodding, Louise pointed her wand at the largest cluster and let rip with her spells, the explosions consumed several while others were disoriented by the shockwave, leaving them easy pickings for the autocannons.

The fighter rumbled as the Lexington fired its guns and levelled the mountainside, completely destroying the empty cave. "Uh oh."

"What do you mean uh oh?" Louise said in a flat tone as the rumbling intensified.

"That's not from the shockwave… they got us with a wind spell. I'm losing lift." Directing the jet towards the ground, Saito had it transition back into walker mode and cursed when cannon shells started landing around them.

Additional spells rained down creating a nigh impenetrable ring around them, reducing the amount of space he had to manoeuvre.

"Ah crap, they're boxing us in…" Saito's attempts to break the encirclement were met with failure as the ring continued to tighten faster than he could shoot down the enemy mages, all the while cannon fire came closer and closer to hitting them.

"We might lose the raiment but I'll get us out of...!?" Saito's words trailed off as several yellow streaks exited the tree line and smashed into the dragon knights and promptly blew up, scattering them and giving Saito an opening to escape.

Several armoured figures rushed out of the trees and opened fire with shoulder mounted rockets, blitzing the disoriented knights and sending many to their graves.

"Apologies for our lateness." Agnes motioned for the other musketeers to continue firing on the dragon knights, while using their sonic grenade launchers to clear out any infantry that had gotten too close.

"No, no, just in time actually." Saito breathed easier as the encirclement was broken and whatever mage was maintaining the wind spell bought the farm, leaving him free to return to the skies.

Circling overhead, Louise dropped several more explosions on top of the enemy ships as the musketeers blasted them from below, sinking them one at a time. Saito did several passes on the Lexington but each time his bullets were simply absorbed by the shields and not even the musketeers' rockets could breach the barrier.

"I'm running out of options here. If we don't do something fast, that ship is going to destroy the musketeers then its just a matter of time before they get us with the grapeshot." Saito muttered as the Lexington fired another volley on the musketeers. Dodging out of the way with the jump jets, he could see them slowing down as the ceaseless barrage started to wear on them.

"I have an idea, but I need to get close to the ship." Louise replied as words of a spell manifested inside her mind. The distillate of thousands of explosions forming the truest expression of her desire just waiting to be released.

"How close do you need to get? Those guns aren't making this easy and they have mages on the top deck now." Saito forced the jet into a corkscrew to throw off the homing firebolts before ascending, he cursed when Louise didn't respond.

Upon turning to look, her eyes were glazed and she was muttering words in a language that made no sense to him, a glowing aura surrounded her as she readied her spell.

"Ah damnit, here goes nothing." Exiting the climb, the Jet Tengu went into an almost vertical drop as Saito cut the boosters to zero and opened up every air brake to slow them down. Using only the most minute of course corrections to avoid incoming enemy fire, sweat beaded his forehead as the Lexington loomed closer.

His sensors indicated that the Tristainian army was almost on scene. There was just one problem, there were marching straight towards the Lexington's flank and their welcoming gift would be a broadside if they didn't down the ship now.

"Come on Louise. We're running out of time."

Just as Saito was about to pull up to avoid ramming into the barrier protecting the carrier. Louise completed her chant and life returned to her eyes. Pointing her wand at the centre of the Lexington, she said just one word.

"Explosion."

-line break

Against the wishes of her advisors, Henrietta lead the charge over the hill. Her white dress billowed in the wind as her horse cleared the top of the hill and she got her first glimpse of the battlefield. And was it a sight to behold.

Albion's fleet in shambles, their dragons being shot out of the sky and a giant metal dart falling straight towards the single largest ship she'd ever seen in her life.

Coming to a stop as she tried to process what her eyes were seeing, that moment would become immortalised in the minds of the soldiers much to her chagrin in the future.

As the rest of the army caught up with the stationary princess, a second sun dawned over them as a magnificent ball of light engulfed the Lexington and two other battleships that were too close.

A strange metal bird shot out of it and flew over their heads, garnering shouts of wonder and fear. After its pass, the light faded and the ships were gone, not even wreckage marked their passing. While they were still perplexed several noticed that Henrietta appeared to nod at the bird right as it flew overhead.

In truth, it was nothing more than her making efforts to keep her mount from being spooked. But the effect was undeniable, the rumour that she had somehow called down an avatar of victory to smite the invaders spread like wildfire.

With the flagship gone and the Tristainian military poised to deliver the coup de grace, the last bit of resolve the Reconquista soldiers had broke and those still in possession of their wits turned to flee.

"They're retreating… we've won?" Henrietta asked herself in a dazed tone before snapping out of her trance. There was still work to be done, the invaders had to be rounded up before they scattered across the countryside.

Then rebuilding came next. The fields had been burnt and even with magic, it would take a long time to return it to how it used to be. At least the villagers were safe, the Gramont child had led them to safety and his father was with them now.

Raising her hand, she signalled her army to charge and shatter what passed for their rear guard and the men obeyed with a triumphant roar.

As the tidal wave of bodies surged past, her frown deepened. Today Reconquista had been beaten, but they weren't vanquished. Cromwell still lived and if the scattered bones were right, they had tens of thousands of men left on the island.

This wasn't over, not by a long shot. No, it was just beginning.

* * *

Author's notes: the only thing worse than one blue screen of death is two. Especially when they wipe out almost a week's worth of work. TMDF-Artyom gets a cookie, Sheffield is Yuriko Omega. The whole mind of god thing was just too perfect to pass up.


End file.
